The country's second-largest government-owned oil and gas exploration company Oil India has qualified as a non-operator in the latest round of oil blocks auction in Libya.
Well, LIC, the government-owned insurer, is bailing out the financially-strapped oil marketing companies by buying up the oil bonds issued to them by the government, though at a discount.
Despite private sector developer Delhi International Airport Ltd bracing for a long and foggy winter with added infrastructure, the shortage of CAT III pilots in some airlines could still mean long delays for passengers.
As the demand for air travel picks up in the smaller towns across the country, travel portals are aggressively moving into these markets outside the six metros wooing aspirant air travellers with easier booking facilities. Most of the prominent travel sites like makemytrip, yatra and cleartrip claim that the places to look at now are smaller cities like Varanasi, Surat, Chandigarh, Baroda, Ludhiana, Vizag and Coimbatore.
With the rise of global crude oil prices - currently nudging $100 per barrel - the "losses" of the three government-owned oil marketing companies have gone up to a whopping Rs 240 crore (Rs 2.4 billion) per day.
The sharp rise in oil prices is threatening to derail not only the long-term expansion plans of government oil marketing companies, which control over 95 per cent of the market, but also their day-to-day operations.
RIL accounted for over a quarter of the country's LPG production of around 8.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) last year. Around 2.5 mtpa LPG - the only petroleum product in which India is not self-sufficient - was imported last year to meet the domestic demand of 11 mtpa. RIL is planning to cut LPG production at Jamnagar from 2.3 mtpa to around 1.6 mtpa from mid-2008 following the grant of export-oriented-unit (EoU) status to the refinery.
To extend its global footprint, GAIL India is likely to partner with China Gas in developing coal bed methane (CBM) in Mongolia. Moreover, Oman Oil is also expected to join them as an ally in the project.
After budget carriers, the Indian skies will soon see the first low-cost charter service. Charter operator Club One Air is going to launch its domestic low-cost operations next year at prices 50 per cent below those currently charged by charters. Thus a Delhi-Kullu chartered flight, which costs Rs 60,000 per person at present, would cost Rs 30,000 once Club One Air starts flying.
This holiday season air travellers will not get rock-bottom prices like Re 1 or Rs 99. In all likelihood, they will have to fork out 10 per cent more for tickets than last year. SpiceJet executives said the fare war was over and average fares across the country would now go up
RP Singh, managing director of Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd, the special purpose vehicle implementing BPCL Bina refinery, had told Business Standard in August that the company was in talks with strategic investors to sell 15 to 20 per cent stake.
Private airport developers in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, say landing and parking fees account for a significant proportion of revenues, so offering these services free would be unviable.
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.
What is more, the training period in the US academies is six months, while it can take up to two and a half years in India. According to norms laid down by the DGCA, one can get a license only after completing 200 hours of flying.
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.
Despite adequate capacity, the India-Gulf market has been growing at a steady pace. Traffic from India to the Gulf increased by 30 per cent last year, while international traffic growth average was 15 per cent.
"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.
"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.
Information technology (IT) solutions provider Amadeus, in a recent study, found that 60 per cent of the companies used low-cost carriers (LCCs) to fly their executives. Around 100 companies were surveyed.
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