BPCL details net-zero plans; GAIL announces 2040 decarbonisation target

India’s second-largest oil refining and retailing company, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, followed up earlier announcements of pursuing net-zero emissions by 2040 with new details of the strategy. Addressing the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, chairman Arun Kumar Singh revealed that the company will lean heavily on renewable energy and electric vehicles. The company will seek to expand its RE portfolio 20-fold in three years from 50 MW currently to 1GW by 25, and 200-fold by 2040. BPCL will also look to deepen its imprint on the EV charging space with new facilities planned across 200 highway corridors.

Meanwhile, India’s public gas distributor GAIL announced its own 2040 net-zero emissions target during the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting. The company also revealed its target to increase the share of gas in India’s energy mix from the current 6.2% to 15% by the end of the decade. In line with India’s vision to achieve net zero by 2070, GAIL completed a comprehensive study on science-based net zero ambition and intends to achieve 100% reduction in scope-1 and scope-2 emissions and a 35% reduction in scope-3 emissions by 2040,” chairman and MD Manoj Jain said at the meeting.

Chattisgarh to build new 1.3GW thermal power plant in Korba

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel announced last week that state-run power company Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company Ltd’s (CSPGCL) will set up a new mega thermal power plant with 1,320 MW capacity in coal district Korba. The plant will be the largest such facility and will be built using ultramodern technique and employ super critical technology. The proposal, which includes two units of 660 MW each will bring the state power company’s generation capacity by almost 45% percent to 4,300 MW.

ONGC, ExxonMobil agree to collaborate on deepwater oil and gas exploration in India

Energy majors ONGC and ExxonMobil signed a heads of agreement (HoA) that will see them explore deepwater oil and gas fields on India’s west and east coast. The two companies will work together on exploration, primarily focusing on the offshore areas of the Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery basins and the offshore area of the Kutch-Mumbai region. “Collaboration between ONGC and ExxonMobil will be a strategic fit where ONGC’s knowledge and past experience in these areas will be coupled with ExxonMobil’s global insights,” ONGC said in a statement.

Amid price spurt, big plans afoot for KG-D6 gas basin

Reliance Industries chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani, earlier this week, announced that the company will start natural gas production from the last of its three discoveries in the offshore area of the Krishna-Godavari delta (KG-D6) by the end of the year. The MJ field, which is being developed jointly with BP, will see output from the fields rise from 19 million standard cubic metres per day to 30 million standard cubic metres per day, and meet up to 15% of India’s gas demand.

Meanwhile, public oil and gas company ONGC sought to capitalise on the surge in gas prices this year by relaunching a tender for the sale of 0.75 million standard cubic metres per day from the basin at a higher price of $15 per mmBtu.

South African court upholds ban on offshore oil and gas exploration

Oil and gas major Shell has been prohibited from using seismic waves for oil and gas exploration off South Africa’s eastern coast as a high court in the country upheld its interim order stating the same from December 2021. Environmental groups had argued that the seismic waves would be disruptive and detrimental to the rich marine life that inhabits the Transkei and Algoa exploration areas.

Europe’s floating LNG terminals raise lock-in risks

Scrambling to replace Russian gas in time to meet winter energy-demand, Europe turned to floating LNG terminals to be fed mainly by natural gas from North America. With over 20 floating terminals rapidly moving through the pipeline, scientists have raised alarm that these terminals run the risk of perpetuating gas use in the continent and locking-in future climate change, through the release of CO2 and methane during production, transport and combustion.

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