The Rs 16,047-cr company has appointed public sector consultancy, Engineers India Ltd, to conduct feasibility studies for the plant with a capacity of 3 million tonnes a year that is likely to be set up near the gigantic South Pars gas field in Iran.
While the pipeline deal was seen as "done" two months ago, when the tri-lateral meeting took place in New Delhi, India is perceived to be dragging its feet on the project since then.
"Deora's ability to be a good listener, and his understanding of business, as he is an industrialist himself, helped the empowered group of ministers reach a decision that more or less has satisfied all parties," a senior official says.
The nuclear-deal-in-the-making with the US has forced the government into a firefighting mode not only domestically, but also internationally, where it is working overtime to avoid straining relations with the key long-time ally -- Russia.
The Indian Sugar Mills' Association, the industry lobby group, will take the proposal to Food & Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar soon, sources close to the development said.
"From our assessment, RIL has invested only a very small amount in buying Gapco. It will not affect the company's balance sheet at all," one Mumbai-based analyst said.
The 2,140-Mw Dabhol power plant, operated by Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd, continues to remain idle even though the Supreme Court has vacated the stay by the Gujarat high court on pooling of gas prices.
The proposed 7.5 million tonne per annum refinery was to process crude oil from Cairn India's field in Barmer, which is expected to start producing in the first half of 2009.
Groaning under the burden of huge arrears to sugarcane farmers and rising losses, leading sugar producers of Uttar Pradesh have begun filing cases against a December 2006 directive of the state government on sugarcane prices.
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation, the central government's procurement agency for non-cereal crops, is in talks with leading retail companies to serve as a back-end supply chain in agri-commodities.
The Essar group has also closed down 275 outlets across the country. The two companies could not withstand 'unfair competition' from government-backed companies which are compensated for selling fuel at subsidised rates.
The proposed India-Iran Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, which the two countries included in their joint New Delhi declaration in 2003, has run into a hurdle.
The hike in prices of petrol and diesel seems to have been put on the backburner with the price of the basket of crude oil that Indian refiners
The company is in the process of doubling its production to 800 oil barrels a day from the current 400 barrels a day, from a part of the field called prospect-B.
The official explained that the contractor would take the worst-case scenario into account "to be on the safe side", when working out the field development plan and the probable cost of exploration and development of the block.
The country's largest marketer of petroleum products is facing troubles in Sri Lanka, one of the two overseas markets where it sells fuel through its fully owned subsidiary, Lanka IOC. The other country is Mauritius.
The petroleum ministry has rapped Reliance Industries for failing to meet its obligations of opening and operating 10 per cent of its petrol and diesel retail outlets in remote and low-service areas.
The shortage of drilling rigs across the world is likely to delay the seventh round of auction of oil and gas blocks, under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy, till October-November this year.
The government is likely to clear the price quoted by Reliance Industries Ltd for its gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin without seeking to control the price.
When the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission shot off notices to 14 cement producers on July 25 for allegedly colluding to raise prices, it was New Delhi's latest flank against the industry.
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