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Refiners see no threat from US exports
Indian fuel exporters see little threat from the US turning a net exporter of petroleum products since
demand in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea is more than adequate to ensure a healthy pull for petroproducts'
shipments from India. The US Energy Information Administration's Petroleum Supply Monthly
report for February said American fuel shipments exceeded imports for the first time since 1949. Exports
were pegged at 439,000 bpd (barrels per day) last year against imports of 269,000 bpd in 2010.
The US has been a net importer of products because strict green norms limited the capacity of ageing
refineries, mostly in the East Coast, from expanding to meet demand of cleaner fuels. But refurbished
Gulf Coast capacities have buoyed US refiners to capitalize on higher demand in the Americas and
overcome a fall in domestic consumption. Available data shows that petro-products have been topping
India's export basket for several years, grossing $40.9 billion in 2010-11 and over $15 billion in the April-
June period of 2011-12.
"You have to see the trend globally. Our export focus is different. South-East Asia, Asia-Pacific and
Australasia regions are deficit (in products). Then West Asia, where demand has gone up but new
refining capacities are not coming up quickly. Europe is deficit in diesel. There's enough demand outside
the Americas for Indian refiners to fulfill," said Essar Energy deputy chairman Naresh Nayyar. Essar
Energy operates some 26 million tons of refining capacity, including a 14 million-ton unit at Vadinar in
Gujarat - predominantly aimed at exports - and a 12 million ton plant at Stanlow in the UK.
State-run refiners too are not worried. "We don't export much (in the face of healthy growth at home).
It is mostly naphtha and bitumen. Maybe at times MS (petrol). But these are sold through global tender
and anyone from anywhere can buy. Same goes for other PSUs," said Indian Oil Corporation's director
(finance) P K Goyal, who is also in charge of international trading operations of India's biggest fuel
retailer. The firm has a refining capacity of 66 million tons.
But the situation could be different for Reliance Industries, which ships more products to the Americas.
Industry sources said the company had hired storage facility in the Gulf Coast and Ashkelon in Israel to
"break' into small parcels cargos shipped in large carriers but had reduced volumes.
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US varsity to establish India Chair in Democracy and Civil Society
To foster greater understanding about the Indian democratic framework, a US university has decided to
establish India Chair, which is said to be the first endowed Chair in North America devoted to study this
aspect of the country. The India Chair in Democracy and Civil Society at the L Douglas Wilder School of
Government and Public Affairs of the Virginia Commonwealth University will be devoted to studying this
aspect of India, its history, culture, and vibrancy of its civil society.
Consequently, the university has launched a fund-raising effort to raise $1-million campaign for the India
Chair in Democracy and Civil Society. The inaugural dinner for this was held in Richmond recently which
among others was attended by the Virginia Governor, Mr. Robert McDonnell, and the Indian
Ambassador to the US, Ms. Nirupama Rao. Unlike other industrializing countries where capitalism was
embraced first and democracy sought later, India is a rare example where democracy took residence
even before modernization and capitalism visited, the university said.
In the past decade, several Chairs of Indian studies have emerged at premier universities in North
America and Europe. While the work of these Chairs is helpful in understanding contemporary Indian
democracy, it does not address why Indian democracy has withstood the test of time and why its place
is so different than in other developing and newly industrializing countries, it said. While drawing on the
work of these Chairs and on the scholarship of India, the India Chair in Democracy and Civil Society at