Over 100 chemical storage tanks built at the Pirpav jetty near Chembur have been operating without approvals from the ministry of environment and forests for over 18 years. Each of these tanks has an average capacity of 200,000 kilolitres of oil.
A series of rises in petrol price following its decontrol on June 25 last year has increased the state governments' earnings from value added tax on petrol by around 21 per cent.
The Union oil ministry is considering a proposal to adopt differential pricing for diesel, under which industrial users like power utilities, will be charged market prices and retail consumers continue to be subsidised.
The combined debt of Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum has risen to Rs 115,000 crore (Rs 1,150 billion) as they borrowed to make up for revenue losses on fuel sales during the first half of the current fiscal.
Higher crude oil prices have almost doubled the under-recoveries of government-owned oil marketing companies -- Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum -- in the past three years.
Despite raising petrol prices by around Rs 2.95 a litre - the second-biggest increase in this calendar year so far - public and private retailers are losing Rs 50 crore a day on selling the auto fuel.
The bonds will help oil marketing companies - IOC, HPCl, Bharat Petroleum and IBP Ltd - to cover their under-recoveries.
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.
Petrol price on Monday was hiked by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 35 paise, taking the total increase in rates in the last one week to Rs 4-4.10 per litre. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 99.41 per litre as against Rs 99.11 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 90.42 per litre to Rs 90.77, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers. Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.
The revenue loss, termed as under-recovery by oil firms, will be the highest-ever.
Those in favour of a 15-day cycle for price adjustment argue that oil firms already have a mechanism of calculating the desired fuel prices on 1st and 16th of every month.
This is the highest any Indian company has been ranked on the Fortune Global 500 list.
The basket of crude oil India buys from overseas markets averaged $68.07 per barrel in September as against the August average of $71.98 a barrel.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora is likely to meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram later this week to seek greater compensation for oil companies, who are currently losing about Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) a day on fuel sales. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are likely to see doubling of revenue loss on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene to Rs 150,000 crore. The three fuel retailers together lost Rs 77,304.50 cr on fuel sale in 2007-08.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Monday launched the service, which will be initially available in the national capital and would be extended to other metropolitan cities, state capitals and towns.
In 13 hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 7.11 per litre and diesel by Rs 7.67 a litre.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) today said it is losing Rs 189 crore per day on selling auto and cooking fuel below cost as global crude oil prices shot up to USD 102 per barrel.
The government's decision to raise fuel prices in June has scuttled the oil companies' plans to reduce their losses from retail fuel sales as consumers are buying less of premium fuels, which is more expensive than normal fuels.
A Parliamentary Committee asked the government on Thursday to seek approval of Parliament before privatising oil refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd as the two were nationalised
Petrol and diesel price soared to an all-time high across the country on Friday after rates were hiked again by 25 paise and 30 paise a litre, respectively. The price of petrol in Delhi rose it its highest ever level of Rs 101.89 a litre and to Rs 107.95 in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Diesel rates too touched a record high of Rs 90.17 in Delhi and Rs 97.84 in Mumbai.
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.
State fuel retailers IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum sell diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government dictated rates which are lower than cost of production.
Besides IOC, Royal Dutch Shell is believed to have evinced interest in reviving the petrol pumps, industry sources said. Reliance, as part of a two part bid process, had sought expression of interest from IOC, Shell, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum by Friday for a possible partnership for reopening the petrol pumps.
Diesel price on Friday was hiked by 20 paise per litre - the first increase in rates in over two months - as international oil prices neared their highest since 2018. Price of diesel was hiked to Rs 88.82 per litre in Delhi and to Rs 96.41 in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Petrol price was not changed. It costs Rs 101.19 a litre in Delhi and Rs 107.26 in Mumbai.
After a year of sluggish growth in fuel retail outlets, the three state-run oil-marketing companies--Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation--have chalked out aggressive plans for expansion in the next financial year. They will be commissioning over 2,100 outlets in 2009-10--over three times what they added in the current year--at an investment of about Rs 1,200 crore.
State-owned oil firms on Tuesday cut jet fuel, or ATF, prices by 4 per cent, the first reduction in rates since July, on softening of international oil prices.
The government on Wednesday broadly hinted about a hike in petrol and diesel prices, saying although it has kept retail prices unchanged it cannot do so for long given the rise in crude oil rates.
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 will provide private companies subsidy equivalent to that given to state retailing firms on LPG, petroleum secretary B K Chaturvedi said.
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