Company in talks with Reliance Capital, Apollo Pharmacy to offer new services at outlets.
The proposed price increase, the first in 18 months, is likely to be in the range of Rs 2 per litre for petrol and Re 1 per litre for diesel, senior petroleum ministry officials said.
Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum to open over 3,000 outlets this year. Even losses of over Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) per day from selling automobile fuels have not stopped government-owned oil marketing companies from expanding their retail network across the country.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country's largest oil refiner and marketing company, is looking to cut operating costs in order to offset the daily loss of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) due to selling petroleum products at subsidised rates.
When Internet search major Google Inc decided to power its 'Googleplex' in Mountain View with one of the largest solar panel installations in the world last year, it was a big vote for solar energy, which presently provides less than 1 per cent of the energy generated worldwide.
Clean development mechanism (CDM) should be used to make the prices affordable for the poor.
The main "culprit" for CO2 emissions is coal-based energy which has 24 per cent share in India's emissions and 41 per cent worldwide. While coal accounts for 25 per cent of energy, the role of renewables is 13 per cent. Of these, wind, solar and bio masses contribute just 4.1 per cent.
India-born steel magnate LN Mittal met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 8 to discuss his plans in the oil and gas sector in India. The meeting has led to reports that Mittal is interested in taking over Cairn India's assets, which includes prospective oil discovery in Rajasthan.
"The economies of scale for a refinery are different for India and Africa. India being a net exporter of products, refineries need to have capacities to the tune of 15 mtpa to push products to the domestic market and for export. In Africa even a small refinery makes sense," the analyst said.
India is being increasingly marginalised in Iran's energy sector for reasons which range from political to economic. Its attempts at securing oil and gas blocks in the country and importing gas (as LNG and through a pipeline) seem to be hitting a dead end. The latest setback for India is the agreement between Iran and Chinese Sinopec for the Yadavaran oil and gas field. This effectively pushes out ONGC Videsh - the government's overseas acquisition vehicle.
Chinese firms, with state help, pip India in acquiring oil assets abroad.
Reliance Industries, Tata Chemicals, Bharti Enterprises' Fieldfresh and Indian Oil are among several large companies that have evinced interest in leasing closed sugar mills that the Bihar government is offering, mainly to exploit opportunities to make ethanol to meet mandatory petrol blending norms that were introduced this year.
With a little bit of jugglery, the government will be able to meet its Eleventh Plan target of adding 78,000 Mw capacity -- more than the total capacity addition achieved in the last three Plans -- despite slippages in some of the projects.
Gas production from the country's biggest gas block is less than a year away, but Reliance Industries (RIL), operator of the block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, and Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL), the biggest buyer of gas from the block, have not made headway on renegotiating the sales agreement.
Videocon Industries, the oil-to-consumer durables company, has joined the race for the acquisition of the London-based Burren Energy, which recently rejected several approaches including one worth $3.5 billion (Rs 14,000 crore) from the Italian major ENI.
Green energy may have become a buzzword in the cities today but people in the hinterland of the country prefer conventional power grids for electricity.
The newly set up Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has received over 100 applications from domestic and foreign companies interested in supplying gas to domestic households and vehicles in cities.
An exceptional spurt in demand for power and less-than-expected capacity addition has pushed up the peak deficit for the April-October period to a 10-year high of 14.6 per cent. According to the latest data, the capacity addition of 3,765 Mw in the first seven months of the financial year is just 32 per cent of the target.
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.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances