A load of crap from an idle brain

ONGC Ltd has decided to exit the proposed refinery-cum-petrochemicals project at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, making way for the GMR Group, which will hold 51% equity in the project that was originally to cost Rs 31,000 crore. The project is part of Andhra Pradesh’s Petroleum Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) proposed over 600 square miles and envisaged to attract investments worth Rs 340,000 crore over the next ten years. GMR’s entry is expected to put PCPIR on the fast-track now.

However, the refinery project is likely to cost close to Rs 40,000 crore with GMR indicating that it would like to increase the capacity upwards of 20 million tonnes to make it more viable, sources privy to the proceedings of a board meeting today told DNA Money.

It is understood that GMR has proposed a higher capacity upwards of 20 million tonnes of refining to make the export oriented project more viable. Reliance Industries had started its own refinery with a capacity of 30 million tonnes and was now going in for an expansion, it was pointed out at the board meeting held on Monday.

Full article here

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So let me start of first with the exam. It was just ok. Am not sure if i can clear it off this time. Let’s see. If nothing works out, there is always December. Yay. See, i always look for a silver lining in the dark cloud.

Oil prices going through the roof means that everything’s becoming costlier. The house rentals have gone up too. Though am yet to find out any comparison between the two. Glee with anticipation that iam getting married, my landlady has jacked up the rentals. I got no choice anyway. So just grin and bear it. Airfares from Singapore to India are freaking costly. Its SG$1050 for the round trip in Singapore airlines. No other airline is flying direct from Singapore to Hyderabad and with just 2 weeks leave, i dont want to play hop and skip with Malaysian, Sri lankan or Thai airways. Also there is not much savings by flying with them. As for Air india and Indian, i will not let even my dog fly with them. So, that rests the case.

In the past 6 months, this is my 3rd trip home and everytime, i have had to pay more than SG$1k. Coupled with it is the upheavals at work and am not sure of why so many things are happening at the same time. Anyway, since none of them are in my control, i let things be the way they are and swim along, and see where the tide takes me.

And then, over the past one week i have watched these 4 movies. Reviews and ratings follow

Juno
Steet Kings
woodstock villa
sarkar raj

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In 2014, the Hinduja group turns 100 years. The group, which has estimated worldwide revenues of $10 billion, with some 35 per cent of those coming out of India, wants to usher in the 100th year in style. The group is looking for some big ticket investments in Oil & Gas, Power, Infrastructure, Real Estate, Telecom & Healthcare.

If all these projects pan out, the Hindujas would end up pumping over $50 billion into the country or even more. The Hinduja group owns Ashok Leyland, Ennore Foundaries, Gulf Oil Corporation, HTMT Global Solutions and IndusInd Bank.

The Hindujas had made a bid of $20 billion when Hutch was put up for sale. But they were pipped at the end by Vodafone. Not wanting to miss out on the India growth story, they want to invest more than $50 billion which could even go upto $100 billion by the time the company hits a century.

Read a detailed article in Business Today about the Hinduja’s multi billion gamble.

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Reliance Industries and Essar Oil , India’s largest private sector oil refiners, are set to create the world’s biggest petroleum refining hub as part of plans to expand their plants in Jamnagar, western India. Essar has announced a $6bn expansion plan to more than triple capacity at its refinery, while Reliance, at its site a few kilometres away, is working on plans to almost double capacity.

The expansion projects will bring their combined refining capacity at Jamnagar to 1.9m barrels a day, the largest in the world in a single location, outstripping hubs such as Rotterdam and Singapore and those in China and South Korea, according to figures compiled by Fesharaki Associates Consulting and Technical Services, Singapore.

An FCC regenerator being prepared for erection at the Reliance Petrochemical Complex in Jamnagar

Under their plans, Essar announced it was lifting capacity at its plant to 700,000 b/d by 2010 from 220,000 b/d. Reliance is in the middle of a $6bn investment to expand capacity to 1.24m b/d from 660,000 b/d by next year. Once the expansion works are complete, the nearest comparable hub will be South Korea’s Ulsan at 1.35m b/d, Facts said.

Prashant Ruia, Essar group director, said the total development cost of the refinery including the expansion would be $9bn, which analysts consider extremely cheap against the global average of about $13bn-$15bn for the same size plant.

Full article here.

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