Johny George

Petrol, diesel prices rise close to Rs 3 a litre in 9 days In the last nine days (since February 9), the price has gone up by Rs 2.59 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 2.82 a litre. IANS, February 17, 2021, 12:27 IST Petrol and diesel prices maintained its northward rally on Wednesday, the ninth consecutive day, when its retail prices have risen across the country, with global oil market on the boil and both crude and product prices seeing a major spike. Accordingly, oil marketing companies raised the pump price of petrol and diesel by another 25 paise per litre in Delhi. With this increase, petrol is now priced at Rs 89.54 a litre and diesel Rs 79.95 a litre in the national capital. In the last nine days (since February 9), the price has gone up by Rs 2.59 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 2.82 a litre. Across the country as well the petrol and diesel price increase ranged from 24-27 paise per litre depending on the level of local taxes on the two petroleum products. In Mumbai, petrol prices is just Rs 4 per litre short of touching the three-digit mark of Rs 100 per litre for the very first time ever anywhere in the country. Diesel prices in the city is closing on Rs 90 a litre (Rs 86.98 a litre). In all other metros, petrol is over Rs 90 a litre while diesel is well over Rs 80 a litre barring Delhi. Premium petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre mark in several cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The increase on Wednesday has followed the firming of global oil prices (both product and crude) that have maintained record streak of gains in past few days with crude reaching close to $63.5 a barrel mark. Since fuel prices are bench-marked to a 15-day rolling average of global refined products' prices and dollar exchange rate, pump prices can be expected to remain northbound over the next few days even if crude hovers at the current level. The petrol and diesel prices have increased 21 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 5.83 and Rs 6.08 per litre respectively so far this year. Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making loss on sale of auto fuels. 1 Rajasthan: Wind power firms to lose government land for not starting projects Even though the renewable power journey of Rajasthan startedwith wind in 1999 having 2 MW, focus has now shifted to solar energy due tocheaper rates developers offer TNN, February 17, 2021, 12:18 IST JAIPUR: The wind power developers who had taken government land and have not been able to execute the projects are set to lose their land. Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Ltd (RRECL) has written a letter to the revenue department to expedite the process for cancellation of the land. In the letter, RRECL said that more than 3000 bigha has been allotted to about 20 companies which has not developed projects. “The revenue land allotted to the projects in these cases was either not utilized by developers within the permissible period of excess land surrendered by developers had been recommended by RREC for cancellation as per Rajasthan Land Revenue (Allotment of Land for setting up of Power plant based on Renewable Energy Sources), 2007,” said the letter. When TOI contacted RRECL chairman and managing director Subodh Agarwal, he said, “The state government has set a 30,000 MW target in the solar energy policy. We require land for these projects. If the developers have failed to execute projects, the land should be returned to the government and it can be used for other projects.” Even though the renewable power journey of Rajasthan started with wind in 1999 having 2 MW, focus has now shifted to solar energy due to cheaper rates developers offer. After 2016, there have been no new tenders for wind power following the scrapping of feed-in tariffs and bidding was made mandatory for wind projects like in solar. The bidding regime discouraged developers as their margins were reduced significantly and there was no policy support to resurrect the sector. In fact, new wind power capacity addition fell to 45 MW in the past four years. “In fact, wind projects could not withstand the competition from solar ones. That’s why many people who had taken land could not develop projects. Majorly, the private sector is to blame for itself for the collapse of the sector as it did not want auction. Whereas solar became popular because of auctions as rates started coming down attracting many players. That was the main reason why the land could not be utilized,” said a wind power developer. The letter addressed to the principal secretary, revenue department, said, “The unutilized land areas have great potential for wind or solar energy generation. You are, therefore, requested to expedite the cancellation of allotment of these huge chunks of land allotted to wind developers or power producers, under intimation to this office, so that these land may be considered for allotment to new renewable project developers.” 2 Oil extends rally on Texas supply disruptions Oil prices have run up strongly in recent months and output disruptions caused by the storm in Texas, the country's largest oil producing state, continued to keep prices supported, analysts said Reuters, February 17, 2021, 15:18 IST SINGAPORE: Oil prices advanced further on Wednesday, underpinned by major supply disruption in the south of the United States this week, caused by a historic winter storm in Texas. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 41 cents, or 0.68%, to $60.46 a barrel at 0752 GMT. Brent crude futures gained 44 cents, or 0.69%, to $63.79 a barrel. Oil prices have run up strongly in recent months and output disruptions caused by the storm in Texas, the country's largest oil producing state, continued to keep prices supported, analysts said. ANZ and Citigroup analysts estimated at least 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of U.S. shale oil production has been curtailed. Citi estimated a cumulative production loss of around 16 million barrels through early March. But the extreme cold has also hit crude demand due to disruptions to refinery operations. Chevron Corp's 112,229 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston-area refinery in Pasadena, Texas, was shut on Tuesday, the company said. The stronger price environment has put more attention on OPEC+, who will meet to set policy on March 4, analysts said. "The impact on crude oil prices will largely depend on how long the power crisis will last, but eventually prices will likely return to the fundamentals with a focus on the global energy demand and OPEC+," said Margaret Yang, a strategist at Singapore-based DailyFX. 3 OPEC+ oil producers are likely to ease curbs on supply after April given a recovery in prices, OPEC+ sources told Reuters. Saudi Arabia's voluntary cut of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) ends next month. While Riyadh hasn't shared its plans beyond March with its OPEC+ partners, expectations in the group are growing that Saudi Arabia will bring back the supply from April, perhaps gradually. U.S. oil inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute industry group and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) will be released on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, delayed by a U.S. holiday on Monday. Analysts polled by Reuters estimated, on average, that crude stocks fell 2.2 million barrels in the week to Feb. 12. 4 Science News from research organizations How a single gene alteration may have separated modern humans from predecessors Novel study used brain organoids genetically modified to mimic nowextinct Neanderthals Summary: Researchers discovered a single gene alteration that may help explain cognitive differences between modern humans and our predecessor, and used that information to develop Neanderthallike brain organoids in the lab. Date: Source: February 11, 2021 University of California - San Diego Summary: Researchers discovered a single gene alteration that may help explain cognitive differences between modern humans and our predecessor, and used that information to develop Neanderthal like brain organoids in the lab. As a professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Alysson R. Muotri, PhD, has long studied how the brain develops and what goes wrong in neurological disorders. For almost as long, he has also been curious about the evolution of the human brain -- what changed that makes us so different from preceding Neanderthals and Denisovans, our closest evolutionary relatives, now extinct? 5