Minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said the finance ministry is yet to approve the oil bonds. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum lost Rs 11,853 crore (Rs 118.53 billion) in revenues on not being allowed to raise LPG and kerosene prices in line with the cost during April- September.
The three firms had planned to jointly buy or lease plantations and related units for producing ethanol, a by-product of sugarcane that is doped in petrol to reduce dependence on imported oil. The three firms have suffered a Rs 14,700-crore (Rs 147 billion) net loss in the first-half of the current fiscal and were living on borrowed money as they lost heavily on retail fuel sales domestically.
Many of the 37,000 petrol pumps across the country could go dry by Thursday if the indefinite strike by executives from public sector oil companies continues. Over 55,000 oil PSU officers from 14 oil companies -- under the umbrella of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) -- began their indefinite strike on Wednesday demanding higher wages.
The government has received three preliminary bids for buying of controlling stake in India's second-largest fuel retailer Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. Mining-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta had on November 18 confirmed putting in an expression of interest (EoI) for buying the government's 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL. The other two bidders are said to be global funds, one of them being Apollo Global Management.
A consortium of Bharat PetroResources, Videocon Industries and the US-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp have discovered additional oil in their block in the Campos basin, off the Brazilian coast.
The government has issued 6.35 per cent Oil Marketing Companies Government of India Special Bonds, 2024 for Rs 22,000 crore (Rs 220 billion) to three oil marketing companies.
Oman Oil Company has offered to buy a 26 per cent stake in the upcoming refinery at Bina for $250 million (Rs 1,200 crore), reversing an earlier decision not to increase its stake beyond the 2 per cent it currently owns.
Analysts said the higher capex by PSUs, along with government spending, could trigger a capex revival for the corporate sector by the second half of FY17
After three consecutive hikes, state-run oil companies on Thursday reduced jet fuel or ATF prices marginally by about one per cent in tandem with international rates for the same.Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum cut aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price by Rs 311 per kilolitre in Delhi to Rs 31,615 per kl with effect from midnight tonight, an IOC official said.
A refiner embarking on an alternative fuel strategy may end up selling bottled water to quench the thirst of millions.
IOC along with its sister PSUs, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp had from September 16 cut jet fuel rates by as much as 3.2 per cent to Rs 37,896.83 per kl.
An official said the government is preparing the financial statements and getting the data room ready for the sales, suggesting that such aspects take time.
"You will have to wait for that," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told reporters. International crude oil prices are ruling at $74 per barrel on Tuesday.
In the year to date, 61 PSUs have lost an average of 22 per cent, with five companies losing more than half their share value. The BSE PSU index is down 10.6 per cent.
This is to compensate for their under-recoveries on the sale of petroleum products during the current financial year. Indian Oil Corporation has been issued oil bonds worth Rs 5,817.27 crore, while Bharat Petroleum Corporation has been issued bonds worth Rs 2,144.32 crore. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation has got bonds worth Rs 2,038.41 crore. Prior to this, bonds worth Rs 60,967 crore had already been issued.
Not surprisingly, equity investors are bidding-up stock prices across sectors and the broader market is now more valuable than pre-Covid levels.
The drop in international oil prices has resulted in revenue loss of Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum dip to Rs 400 crore per day from Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) a fortnight back. The basket of crude oil India buys averaged $111.09 a barrel in the second fortnight of August as compared with $117.37 per barrel in the first fortnight of the month.
Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines owes state-run oil companies over Rs 950 crore (Rs 9.50 billion0 in unpaid fuel bills while financial crisis-hit NACIL has cleared almost two-thirds of its outstanding.
The fuel price revision on Wednesday is likely to wipe out the Rs 1,100 crore net revenue earned by the three oil marketing companies--Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation -- in the last one month, say officials from these companies.
Essar Oil has decided to cut petrol and diesel prices in the range 50 paise to Rs 2.50 per litre effective from July 16.
Public sector oil firms have seen losses on fuel sale widening to about Rs 170 crore (Rs 1.7 billion) per day on firming international oil prices and may end the fiscal with over Rs 49,000 crore (Rs 490 billion) in revenue loss.
The hike comes on back of over 12 per cent hike on June 15. ATF price on that day were raised by Rs 3,949 to Rs 36,252 per kilolitre in Delhi.
OMCs' Digital India move is likely to have an impact on more than 80.3 million Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana consumers, majority of whom are not exposed to digital transact.
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.
The public sector oil refining and marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation are back on the radar of investors as their profit levels reach record highs.
For the first time in seven months, state-run fuel retailers are making losses on selling diesel and together with negative returns on petrol, LPG and kerosene, the companies may lose Rs 38,700 crore (Rs 387 billion) in revenues this year.
Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum raised avitation turbine fuel price by Rs 3,949 to Rs 36,252 per kilolitre in Delhi effective Monday midnight, an IOC official said. International crude oil prices have firmed to a seven-month high of $72 per barrel on hopes of demand revival in US.
State-run oil refiners are likely to report profits on daily sale of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene in the fortnight ending December 31, after average crude oil prices have been nearly 3 per cent lower and the rupee has appreciated 3.2 per cent compared with the first fortnight of this month.
The country's oil marketing companies are preparing for another round of increase in the price of aviation turbine fuel on July 1 as the average price of the fuel in international markets has shot up to around $160 per barrel in June from $150 per barrel in May.
Majority of PLL's long-term deals are linked to crude, which faces price challenge from other fuels. Spot LNG is moving away from this linkage, which puts a question mark on crude linked contracts.
Profits of the country's oil marketing companies - Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation - fell by as much as 29 per cent in 2007-08 in spite of an up to 56 per cent rise in the oil bonds these companies received during the year compared with 2006-07.
The firms were till last month selling diesel at a profit of 32 paise a litre, which helped them partly neutralise the losses on the sale of petrol, domestic LPG and kerosene. But from Monday, IOC, BPCL and HPCL are at breakeven on diesel while they lose Rs 3.68 a litre on petrol, Rs 69.49 per 14.2-kg LPG cylinder and Rs 12.65 on every litre of kerosene, industry sources said.
Tata Sons stake in the group's listed companies is now worth Rs 9.28 trillion, up 34.4 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. In comparison, the Government of India's stake in listed central public sector undertakings (PSUs) is currently valued at Rs 9.24 trillion
The earnings are, however, expected to be down around 2 per cent on a sequential basis due to pent-up demand getting exhausted and the adverse impact of rising metals and energy prices on consumer goods and manufacturing companies.
The oil marketing companies are driving credit growth. The banking sector -- which typically sees credit contraction in the initial months -- has managed to buck the trend and has added nearly Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion) of advances in the first seven weeks of the current financial year thanks to the demand from the two sectors.
Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd are projected to lose around Rs 1,15,500 crore (Rs 1,155 billion) during the year as they sold petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas at below production costs when crude oil prices rose steadily between April and July this year to reach a peak of $147 a barrel in early July.
The finance ministry has restricted tax holidays to only new refineries run by public sector firms and has barred units under construction by private sector companies like Essar Oil from the benefit.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will pay Rs 852 crore (Rs 8.52 billion) for subsidising petrol and diesel during January-March quarter but state gas utility GAIL India has been spared from the subsidy burden.
This comes at a time when the COVID-19 crisis is expected to derail the government's revenue maths for 2020-21, hitting the mop-up from sources such as taxes and divestment.
While the Union Cabinet had in November last year approved the sale of the government's entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL, offers seeking expression of interest (EoI), or bids showing interest in buying its stake, were invited only on March 7. The EoI submission deadline was May 2, but on March 31 it was extended up to June 13. On Wednesday, the government said this deadline is further being extended up to July 31.
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