Despite international crude oil prices falling to a four-month low, retail petrol and diesel prices in India are unlikely to be cut immediately because state-run refiners are still processing costlier crude purchased during the peak of the West Asia crisis, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
S&P Global Ratings warns that Indian oil marketing companies like IOC, BPCL, and HPCL may face reduced profit margins due to rising crude oil prices and government pressure to maintain stable retail prices.
Govt was vary of giving BJP-leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi any kind of advantage on the eve of elections in the state.
IndianOil Corp Ltd, for instance, saw a growth of around 22 per cent in volumes and nearly two per cent in its market share. It traded nearly 10,517 million tonnes (mt) of auto gas in December against 8,593 mt of auto gas in September.
Asian Development Bank and ExxonMobil-promoted RasGas of Qatar have taken 10 per cent equity each in Petronet LNG Ltd, the public sector joint venture firm which will begin importing liquefied natural gas from January next year.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corp has asked the government to review the scheme of sharing of liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene subsidy with upstream firms and said the scheme should not be extended beyond March 2004.
Losses on sale of diesel at government-controlled rates have hit a record Rs 19.26 a litre, sending state-owned oil companies scrambling for ways to cover the mounting losses.
Public sector oil firms plan to set up over 4600 petrol stations and 907 LPG sale agencies in the current fiscal, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday.
IOC has asked consumers to book LPG refill through IVRS or SMSes so that refills reach genuine users.
The state-owned refiner has offered 15,000 tonnes in a tender.
State-run gas utility GAIL India and state refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd have floated a joint venture company to supply piped natural gas for domestic and commercial use
Indian private sector and State-run refiners continued to receive crude oil from Russian suppliers even after November 21 -- the winding-down date for US sanctions on supplies from leading Russian oil producers imposed in October -- as new intermediaries sprung up in West Asia to sell the oil, according to senior refining sources and ship tracking data.
Videocon Industries on Tuesday said a well drilled to confirm an oil discovery in its Brazilian offshore block has struck 200 feet of high-quality hydrocarbon zone.
State exploration firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp on Thursday said it will take 26 per cent equity in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's upcoming 6 million tonnes refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh.
Eight Indian companies, including Reliance Industries, Bharti Tele-ventures and software giants Infosys and Wipro have made it to the Forbes A-List featuring 400 most attractive companies for investors.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp, said on Monday it had signed an agreement to supply crude oil to refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd for two years ending March 2004.\n\n\n\n
The divestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) may hit a fuel price hurdle, according to officials dealing with the matter. They pointed out that the inconspicuous administered price regime could hamper the prospects for potential buyers of BPCL. A senior oil ministry official said public-sector oil-marketing companies (OMCs) take a hit when they sell petrol, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), three of the most popular petroleum products in the country.
Expecting oil prices to remain under pressure, Fitch Ratings said deregulation of diesel prices in October will help in lowering the under-recoveries (which is nothing but international petroleum prices minus the subsidised retail rates).
The price of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) was on cut by Rs 21 per cylinder and that of jet fuel (ATF) by a steep 3 per cent on the back of falling international oil rates.
As much as 8 billion rubles (about Rs 1,000 crore) of dividend income belonging to Indian oil firms is stuck in Russia after the Putin administration clamped down on dollar repatriation, officials said on Friday. Indian state oil firms have invested $5.46 billion in buying stakes in four different assets in Russia. These include a 49.9 per cent stake in Vankorneft oil and gas field and another 29.9 per cent in TAAS-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha fields.
No immediate comment was available from airlines on the impact of the price hike on passenger fares.
This is the highest any Indian company has been ranked on the Fortune Global 500 list.
Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani-led RIL was the top private sector company from the country as it jumped from 203rd rank last year to 148th.
The government on Thursday permitted 100 per cent foreign investment under the automatic route in oil and gas PSUs which have received in-principle approval for strategic divestment. The move would facilitate privatisation of India's second biggest oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL). The government is privatising BPCL and selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake in the company.
The government has ordered Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to pay a near-record Rs 13,764 crore as fuel subsidy for the December quarter, a move that will dent the firm's profitability.
At the same time, the Cabinet approved reducing government's stake in select PSUs such as IOC to below 51 per cent while continuing to retain management control.
Aviation Turbine Fuel, or ATF, price at Delhi was cut by Rs 3,025.34 per kilolitre, or 4 per cent, to Rs 71,800.21 per kl, according to Indian Oil Corp, the nation's largest fuel retailer.
Aviation turbine fuel to now cost more.
Air fares to go up as ATF price is hiked by 8.2%.
The price of petrol was hiked to Rs 101.39 a litre in Delhi from Rs 101.19 and to Rs 107.47 per litre in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Diesel rates went to Rs 89.57 a litre in Delhi and Rs 97.21 in Mumbai.
In Mumbai, jet fuel costs Rs 71,940.36 per kl as against Rs 73,306.89 per kl previously, IOC said.
The Government may be keen on having a greater say in affairs of Petronet LNG as it is looking at appointing a bureaucrat as director on board of the nation's biggest liquefied natural gas importer.
Diesel price on Monday was hiked by 25 paise per litre -- the third increase since last week -- and more rate hikes for both diesel and petrol are in the offing in the coming days as international oil prices have soared to a three-year high. The price of diesel was hiked to Rs 89.32 per litre in Delhi and to Rs 96.94 in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. This is the second straight day of increase in diesel prices and the third since September 24 when the state-owned oil firms ended a three-week hiatus in rates.
The loss on diesel sales has inched up marginally to Rs 8.37 a litre even as a surge in international oil rates and a weakening rupee wiped out gains from a 50 paise increase in the price of the fuel.
The government on Wednesday said there was no proposal to either merge Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum with Oil and Natural Gas Corp or Oil India Ltd with Indian Oil Corporation.
Diesel in Mumbai costs Rs 79.72 per litre at IOC outlets and Rs 79.79 at BPCL outlets.
The government is keen on getting global oil majors like Saudi Aramco and National Iranian Oil Corp on board Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum through the market route even though privatisation of the state-run oil refining and marketing compa
IOC is building a 5 million tonnes per annum LNG terminal at Ennore near Chennai which is to be completed by 2017.
The Public Enterprises Selection Board, which is the government head-hunter, interviewed seven candidates for the post, which fell vacant after Dinesh K Sarraf was elevated as Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC.
