Petroleum Minister Murli Deora would visit Pakistan early next month to sort out differences over transit fee for the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
In an embarrassment to the United Progressive Alliance, voices of dissent emerged from within the Congress over the government's decision to bring an ordinance on convicted lawmakers with Union Minister Milind Deora today apprehending that the move "can endanger already eroding public faith in democracy".
India will make another attempt to salvage the $22-billion deal to import LNG from Iran when Petroleum Minister Murli Deora meets the Islamic country's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Thursday.
The Congress on Thursday urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to take up strongly with Canadian authorities reports of a float depicting the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi being part of a parade in Brampton.
"I would say there was a good response from the people (we met today), and something substantial can come out of it. But I cannot give you the names or details of our meeting," Deora, when asked to give a sense of the meeting by rediff.com, said.
"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.
Union Minister of State for IT and Communications Milind Deora will be taking on Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and Aam Aadmi Party candidates as he tries to win the South Mumbai seat for the third time in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will meet Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and chiefs of airlines and oil companies to discuss a solution for dues of over Rs 2,000 crore that the domestic carriers owe the state-owned oil marketers on fuel sales.
Crude prices are hovering near $100 a barrel level after hitting a six-month low of $98 on Thursday. Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey said that crude prices are expected to fall even further.
Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora on Tuesday slammed the Mumbai police for 'acting in haste' by arresting two young girls for their Facebook post questioning shutdown of the city for Bal Thackeray's funeral and called for checks to prevent misuse of the IT Act.
The government advised the warring Ambani brothers several times that they should stop fighting, but failed to bring about a reconciliation, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.
'Not just Maharashtra, the Congress has not fielded even one Muslim candidate from Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.'
The government will cut petrol and diesel prices when there is a sustained drop in global crude oil prices, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Thursday.
Though the government had earlier this year explicitly decided to compensate Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum for the losses they incur on selling domestic liquid petroleum gas and kerosene through public distribution system by way of oil bonds, the finance ministry has not issued any bonds for the three quarters.
A source said on Tuesday that 'petroleum ministry is likely to propose deregulation of petrol prices and gradual phasing out of subsidies on diesel to ease burden on public sector oil marketing companies' -- indicating a possible hike of Rs 3 per litre in petrol rates.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Monday hinted at a hike in fuel prices, asserting that a final call on it would be taken by the Group of Ministers in the meeting to be held in New Delhi on June 7.
Replying to a calling-attention motion in Rajya Sabha, oil minister Murli Deora said the $4.2 per million British thermal unit price fixed for gas produced from KG-D6 fields of RIL was lower than the average of $5.51 per mmBtu charged by UK's BG-led consortium for Panna/Mukta and Tapti gas. It was also lower than the $4.3 per mmBtu price of gas produced from Cairn's Ravva Satellite fields and $4.75 per mmBtu for the UK firm's Lakshmi fields.
An initiative of Nandan Nilekani's EkStep Foundation, people+ai on Tuesday unveiled its vision for the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India, dubbed 'Adbhut India' (Amazing India). It aims to harness AI as a powerful tool to enhance the lives of all Indians. The event marked the rollout of several initiatives by people+ai that are focused on discovering, demonstrating, and disseminating population-scale AI use cases for India.
Crude oil prices in July last year rose to a historic high of $147 and then plumetted to four-year low of $37 per barrel, all in just four months time. The minister said the global financial crisis which was the primary reason for the slump in international oil prices, has forced India to revise growth targets.
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.
In a six-page reply to the Election Commission's notice, Deora said he had not made any suo moto statement on price reduction and made those reported comments on being quizzed by the media on sidelines of a hydrocarbons conference in New Delhi. The commission on Wednesday sent a communication to Deora and the ministry's Secretary R S Pandey seeking their comments on complaints by BJP that the minister violated model code of conducts.
The government on Tuesday clarified that no papers of sensitive nature were ever given to Mukesh Ambani-run RIL or its Canadian partner Niko Resources, and added they were provided only those papers needed to implement the decision on pricing of natural gas from their field.
Murli Deora, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, will be leaving for Pakistan on Tuesday. India and Pakistan's relation will get unprecedented boost if talks on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas project proceeds on a fast track, said a high-level source in the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. The biggest issue in realising the TAPI pipeline project is the issue of security through Afghanistan.
Farhan Azmi, son of state Samajwadi Party chief Abu Asim Azmi, on Tuesday said he was in the reckoning to contest against sitting Congress Member of Parliament and Union minister Milind Deora from the posh Mumbai South constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
"What I would have really liked is if Rahul Gandhi got involved in a government a long time ago, like me and like a lot of my other colleagues. I think if he got into government like five yeas ago, when we came back into power in 2009, a lot would be different for our government. "A lot would be different for our party. A lot would be different for Rahul also, perhaps, in terms of being able to say he has experience," the Mumbai South member of Parliament told NDTV.
The country is facing no shortage of domestic cooking gas at the moment, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. As on October 1, 2007, OMCs were serving 9.79 crore LPG customers through their 9,355 distributorships. OMCs have released 27.7 lakh new LPG domestic connections in the country during April-September.
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.
India expects to finalise an agreement on the tri-nation pipeline that will bring natural gas from Iran via Pakistan by the middle of next month, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.
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'The price increases, particularly in respect of cooking gas, that is domestic LPG and PDS kerosene, have been quite minimal.'
The government is likely to take a decision on revising fuel prices by the end of this month, petroleum minister Murli Deora said on Monday.
Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20. Counting of votes will be held on June 4.
The government on Monday refused to review its decision rejecting the price of natural gas proposed to be sold by Reliance Industries Ltd to an Anil Ambani group firm.
Ahead of the Mumbai meeting, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said that a few more political parties were likely to join the opposition INDIA during its upcoming meeting.
Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources continued its attack on the government for allegedly favouring brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on the sale price of gas from the Krishna Godavari D6 basin. At $4.2 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), the price fixed, there is a premium of more than 100 per cent over the gas available through the administered pricing mechanism, it said.
Deregulating petrol and diesel prices has been on the cards since the crude oil prices came down by $100 from the historic high of $147 a barrel, a few weeks back. But with the rates climbing again, doubts are being cast if prices can actually be freed. Crude oil prices are ruling at $71-72 a barrel, a seven-month high.
Within days of India approaching International Atomic Energy Agency for country-specific safeguards for nuclear power plants, the ministry issued advertisements in newspapers explaining what the uranium extracted energy can do to the nation's energy security. Energy-hungry India has a huge unmet power demand and the heavily subsidised diesel is being used as fuel to generate electricity.
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In a setback to the Congress ahead of Lok Sabha elections, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Monday quit the Congress, amid speculation that he is veering towards the Bharatiya Janata Party.
India has put in place a multi-pronged strategy, including faster exploration and acquisition of oil fields abroad, to secure energy at affordable rates, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said.
