IOC in talks with BG, others to secure LNG supplies

State-run Indian Oil Corporation is in talks with BG Group, Qatar and Gazprom to secure long-term liquefied natural gas supplies for an import terminal it is building to feed its rising energy demand.

But while it talks to potential suppliers, the company is also keeping its options open to initially import LNG through spot or shorter-term contracts on expectations that India may lift price controls on the power and fertiliser sectors and allow them to pass on feedstock costs to consumers.

"It is not proper to assume that long-term contracts are the only way out," said A.M.K. Sinha, director of business development, on the sidelines of an LNG conference.

"It may be prudent to see how the deregulation of the power and fertiliser sectors proceed."

Indian oil is building a 5 million tonnes per year LNG terminal at Ennore in southern India, which is expected to come online by 2014.

Controls on what power and fertiliser companies charge consumers have hampered their ability to pay market prices for natural gas and other feedstocks.

To help partly offset costs, the government also caps the price of locally produced natural gas, currently at USD 4.2 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). It also controls who the gas can be sold to.

"India's ability to pay for imported LNG depends on how much the biggest consumers - power and fertilizer sectors - are willing to pay," said Sinha. "Their payment ability hinges how much they can pass on the costs to consumers."

Other consumers, such as petrochemical plants and refineries, can afford to pay more for gas, Sinha said. These customers are paying an average of USD 13-15 per mmBtu and sometimes as much as USD 16 per mmBtu for gas that is imported.

Asian spot LNG prices are currently around USD 16 per mmBtu.

"Who knows, we may get the terminal ready, buy spot and short-term cargoes and then look at a long-term contract," Sinha said, adding that the company is also waiting to see how supply dynamics change if the U.S. starts to export LNG.

Asian buyers have been eagerly eyeing LNG exports from the United States, where a gas glut has depressed prices to around USD 2.20 per mmBtu, a fraction of Asian prices.

In December, state-run GAIL India signed a contract with Cheniere Energy for 3.5 mtpa of LNG for 20 years from its Sabine Pass plant starting in 2017.

Gas accounts for about 10% of India's primary energy basket versus the world average of 24%, and India's gas demand is expected to grow at 14% in the next five years.

India's LNG import capacity will reach 47.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in 2015-16 from 13.5 mtpa now.

Forget Budget! Fuel price hike now..............

It's the high crude price and government's dilly-dallying attitude that may pinch common man's pocket once again this summer. Already combating inflation, common man may be forced upon by another fuel price hike soon. Assembly elections being a history now and the Budget pegging an ambitious fiscal deficit target, experts are worried that fuel price hike is just waiting in the wings.

Not only that, the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjeehas himself hinted at a fuel price hike soon, saying 'political consensus for it would be built after the session'.

However, it is not time to hit the panic button yet. The market has already factored in a both petrol and diesel price hike. "Our own calculations is that we will see a Rs 2 hike in diesel coming this fiscal year at least and about Rs 4-6 on petrol," Tirthankar Patnaik, Religare Capital Markets says.

There are other experts who think the government may take some more time to hike fuel price. Jyotivardhan Jaipuria, Head Of Research, BofA Merrill Lynch feels that hike will strictly depend on global crude price which may even hit the Indian market.

Jaipuria explains that the finance minister did not want to risk announcing an increase in oil prices because politically it may not have gone down well.  "Probably he is hoping to first pass the Budget and then get down to these issues which will probably be more controversial and where he needs to build much bigger consensus amongst his allies and probably some of the opposition parties," he adds.

Experts warn that the market will raise red flags if crude inches by another USD 10 per barrel.

BPCL views

Whatever said and done, Bharat Petroleum is going to hike petrol price soon.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, RK Singh, CMD, BPCL said, "We are watching the situation, the movement of the price in the international market. Very soon we will take a call on that. As you know in my view if the subsidy has to be kept at the level that has been provided for by the government I don't think there is any other option other than increasing the price. When and how much is the issue that government will have to decide."

Explaining the situation that under-recovery has gone up to more than Rs 6 per litre and the international price of petrol has gone up to about a USD 135 a barrel, Singh stresses that there is no option but to hike rates.

The quick fix solution he points out that is if crude falls below USD 100 it will be easy for the government to raise the prices not to very high level and yet maintain the subsidy level of Rs 43,000 crore.

'Oily' woes

The government had decontrolled petrol price in June 2010, diesel and domestic LPG are sold at highly subsidised prices.

However, even petrol price have not moved in tandem with cost with state oil firms losing over Rs 5 a litre because of an informal moratorium imposed in view of assembly polls. They currently lose Rs 14.73 a litre on diesel, Rs 30.10 a litre on kerosene and Rs 439.50 per LPG cylinder.

In the current fiscal, the government has provided Rs 65,000 crore in fuel subsidy, which it hopes to trim down to Rs 40,000 crore in 2012-13. It targets to bring down the subsidy bill to below 2% of GDP in FY'13.

Sachin Tendulkar gets his ton of tons

Mirpur: It's here at last. After a year of keeping India waiting, Sachin Tendulkar has scored his 100th international ton. An entire nation heaved a collective sigh and uncrossed its fingers.
Live Scorecard

The 100th Sachin ton came against Bangladesh during the fourth match of the Asia Cup on Friday. Fittingly, or perhaps sensing that history could be made today, a huge crowd gathered at the Shere Bangla National Stadium to witness the master blaster go where no cricketer has gone before.

Of his 100 international tons, Sachin has scored 51 in Tests and 49 ODIs. It took Sachin 188 Tests and 462 ODIs to get to this landmark. Sachin, who is now 38-years-old, made his debut at the age of 16 in 1989.

It has been a classic Sachin innings so far; easy strokes as he has piled on the runs. The veteran batsman took on the Bangladeshi bowling with confidence and reached the milestone using 138 balls and smashing 10 boundaries and a six en route. During the knock he also became the first batsman to hit over 2,000 boundaries in One Day Internationals.

The buzz around Sachin's record ton of tons had begun as early as the World Cup last year, but despite numerous opportunities, he was unable to reach the three-figure mark. Sachin opted to play the Asia Cup after a less than average outing in the CB Series in Australia.

His last international century came during the World Cup against South Africa on March 12, 2011.  It took him 34 innings, include thirteen ODI innings, to get to his most awaited century.

Mirpur, Bangladesh got lucky that Sachin chose to play his 462nd ODI here.

On Friday, he made use of both singles and the occasional boundary to pulverise the Bangladesh bowlers. The bowling was ordinary and the ground fielding was equally ordinary as the home crowd battled with mixed emotions - watching a master at work with his willow and looking at the host team suffering on the field. Shahadat Hossain was dispatched to mid-wicket fence while Mahmudullah found out bowling short to a legend in the game, even if close on the heels of a milestone, will not be spared.

Tendulkar opened the innings with Gautam Gambhir (11) and despite losing him early, the veteran batsman negotiated the attack with characteristic ease.

This after Mushfiqur Rahim asked the opposition to bat again after winning his second toss of the tournament on a dry-looking pitch that was expected to aid spin.

Baby Falak who died of a heart attack

Baby Falak, the two-year-old who had India watching her in hospital and praying for her recovery, will be cremated by her mother. The baby died of a heart attack yesterday - her third in two months. Doctors at Delhi's AIIMS hospital, where Falak went through multiple surgeries, say they've been told that Falak's mother, Munni, will meet them  most likely tomorrow to collect her youngest child. Falak was being monitored by the Child Welfare Committee, and the officials have asked for an inquiry on her death.  That could take till tomorrow to complete.

Falak was introduced to India under circumstances that made the country sick with anger. She was brought to AIIMS by a young teen who had been looking after her. Her face had been bitten, her head had repeatedly been smashed into a wall, and her chest showed burn marks from a hot clothes iron. The nurses who tended to her at the Intensive Care Unit named her Falak meaning "the sky." In recent weeks, doctors had said Falak was showing healthy signs of recovery and was strong enough to leave hospital. But because nobody requested them for her custody, she was moved to the general ward. Yesterday, her heart beat fluctuated all day. Then last evening, she had a heart attack. Two earlier cardiac arrests had weakened her heart greatly. For 40 minutes, doctors tried to revive her. Finally, they gave up.

Till Falak met the doctors and nurses who devoted their days and nights to her, the baby had known only a world of unimaginable neglect and horror. Her mother's story is one that shames India repeatedly - she couldn't afford to look after her three children. So after being passed from one disinterested adult to another, Falak's last few weeks before being admitted to hospital were with a teen living with a married man. The young girl abused her after the man she had eloped with took off to see his wife and children.

A long police search located Falak's mother, named Munni, in Rajasthan. Munni originally lived in Bihar with her husband and three children, including Falak. Then her husband left her. Munni was lured to Delhi by a gang who trafficked sex workers. She refused to prostitute herself, so the women in the gang arranged a marriage for her to a man in Rajasthan. They brokered the deal, unknown to Munni, for two lakhs. They said she should leave her children behind, and that once she settled into her new life, her husband would be persuaded to accept them. The women then divided up the children. Falak's sister was sent home to Bihar. Her brother is five-years-old. And Falak was passed from one adult to another, all known to the gang of traffickers, till she ended up with the teen who brought her to AIIMS.

Falak's mother visited her once in hospital. She broke down after she saw her baby. She has been staying at a shelter for women run by an NGO.

The Child Welfare Committee was to decide whose custody Falak would be placed in once she left AIIMS.

Sensex falls 90 pts

The BSE Sensex shaved off all its gains after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee hiked standard excise duty rate from 10% to 12%. Even he raised duty on large cars from 22% to 24%.

Service tax increased to 12% from 10%, which will yield Rs 18,660 crore for the government, FM says.

The BSE benchmark lost 90 points to 17,585.63 and the NSE benchmark fell 22 points to 5,358.05.

At 12:25 hours IST: Choppy Sensex trades higher; FM cuts STT by 20% to 0.1%

The BSE Sensex was extremely volatile during speech by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He said the government has reduced Securities Transaction Tax (STT) by 20% on delivery transactions to 0.1%.

He set fiscal deficit target 5.1% of GDP for FY13. He, during his Union Budget Speech, said income upto Rs 2 lakh exempted from tax. "Income from Rs 2-5 lakh - tax will be 10%; income from Rs 5-10 lakh - tax will be 20%; and above Rs 10 lakh - tax of 30%."

The Sensex was up 38 points at 17,714.11 and the NSE Nifty rose 17 points to 5,397.85.

Even the market breadth improved further; about 750 shares advanced while 696 shares declined on the National Stock Exchange.