Oil and gas players' wish list includes incentivising E&P investments and reintroduction of income tax holiday for exploration and production activities, among others.
India plans to further cut imports from Iran by 13 per cent next fiscal even though easing of US and western sanctions has made buying crude oil from the Persian Gulf nation easier.
Iran has offered discounts on crude oil price and free shipping if India agrees to buy more of its oil.
The committee said the move 'clearly undervalued the company and its long-term growth prospects'.
Essar Energy's $350-million deal to buy Shell UK's oil refinery and associated assets at Stanlow, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, has hit a road block. The employee union has rejected the deal in its current form due to differences over pension payout and other issues.
Essar has announced a $6bn expansion plan to more than triple capacity at its refinery, while Reliance, at its site a few kilometres away, is working on plans to almost double capacity.
In a temporary reprieve, India will pay for Iranian crude oil in euros through a German bank based in Hamburg, while a permanent solution to the payment issue will be explored at a meeting in Teheran next week.
The government should scrap the windfall profit tax on domestically produced crude oil as the levy is adversely impacting the capex-intensive exploration of oil and gas, the industry said in its recommendation for the forthcoming annual Budget. India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1, joining a growing number of nations that tax super normal profits of energy companies. At that time, a Rs 23,250 per tonne ($40 per barrel) windfall profit tax on domestic crude production was levied.
Companies and retailers have launched schemes one has never heard of.
On the sidelines of crude oil price rise, Indian oil majors including Reliance Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Essar Oil are eyeing exploration opportunities at the oil-rich sand beds of Alberta in Canada. The firms are believed to be drawing up plans in consultation with the central government and considering tie-ups with international firms for sand-oil exploration.
India's imports from Iran rose to 250,200 barrels per day
Cover inadequate for even one refinery.
Lower bank rates the main draw; $6 bn to be raised in next few months.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) will double offtake of crude oil from Cairn India's Rajasthan fields to 0.4 million tons this fiscal.
In 2017, a consortium led by Russian state oil company Rosneft agreed to buy Essar Oil for $12.9 billion in India's biggest foreign acquisition of a homegrown company. Rosneft's buyout of Essar's assets was meant to herald a wave of energy investments in India - over six decades after Esso, Caltex and Shell invested in India's refining sector in the 1950s. But the government has tripped up in its efforts to sell Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), formerly Burmah Shell, a blue chip public sector company. Bidders include a couple of global funds and resources firm Vedanta.
The private companies want a level playing field so that they can compete with the government companies in fuel retailing.
India will pay Iran $900 million in two tranches beginning next week to clear part of the past dues for crude oil it buys from the Persian Gulf nation.
India's Iran imports rise to 276,800 bpd vs 195,600 bpd in 2013.
The last week of March saw a series of new refining capacity going on stream. HPCL-Mittal Energy, Essar Oil and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) were able to announce completion of capacity additions a couple of days before the seven-year tax holiday in this regard came to an end, on March 31.
The domestic supply of diesel has been constrained on rapidly growing demand. The diversion of supplies from Reliance Industries, which was given export-oriented unit status last year, has added to the shortage. Reliance produces 10 million tonnes of diesel from Jamnagar.
"We will be guided by our national interest," he said.
A depreciation in the value of the rupee against the dollar, coupled with surging crude oil prices, are likely to push the country's crude oil import bill to over $100 billion in 2008-09, from $77.02 billion in 2007-08, according to industry officials.
The government on Monday received 181 bids from global and domestic oil majors, including ONGC, Reliance Industries, Essar, BP Plc and BHP Billiton, for oil and gas exploration blocks under the seventh round of NELP auction.
Indian conglomerate Essar group is understood to have initiated discussions for acquiring 50 per cent stake in a Kenyan refinery from international oil players as part of its move for a global footprint. The refinery in Mombasa, in which the government of Kenya owns a 50 per cent stake, has an annual production capacity of about four million tonnes.
Oil ministry this week issued written instructions to the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run firm to make a 'pro-rata' cut in gas supplies to all existing customers if the production from its KG-D6 field cannot support new customers, two sources with direct knowledge of the information have said.
After briefly maintaining prices at par with public sector oil marketing companies following the June 25 price hike, private fuel retailers Essar Oil and Reliance Industries are selling petrol and diesel at a premium of Rs 0.50 to 2.50 per litre in some states.
The government has already decided to accord priority to fertiliser and power units for allocation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin. According to sources, the empowered group of ministers on gas, which met last week, has made it clear it will be able to provide additional gas to steel firms only after meeting the requirements of the power and fertiliser units. Among the steel majors, Essar, Ispat and Vikram Ispat have gas-based units.
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.
US sanctions against Iran kick in from November 4, which will block payment routes. Sources said India and Iran are discussing reverting to rupee trade after November 4.
Power Grid Corp of India Ltd is set to form joint ventures with five more companies, including Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Essar, for setting up transmission lines in the country entailing a total investment of Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion).
The Rs 31,000-crore refinery and petrochemical plant being planned by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh is likely to have a new partner -- the Bangalore-based GMR group. GMR is the latest to join the long line of suitors, including the Hinduja group, Reliance Industries and Essar Oil, for the refinery.
"There are eight companies (who have put in expression of interest)... RNRL is one of them," said A K Ahuja, managing director, Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd, the company that operates the nation's biggest gas-fired power plant and the adjacent LNG import facility. Others in the fray include state power utility NTPC and GMR. Ahuja said RGPPL will frame the bidding criteria and call for financial bids by next month.
Reliance has shut all of its 1,432 petrol pumps in the country after sales dropped to almost nil as it could not match the subsidised price offered by public sector competition. Public sector currently sells petrol at a loss of Rs 13.97 a litre and diesel at a discount of Rs 20.97 per litre. This revenue loss is made up by the Government through issue of oil bonds. Private firms were not entitled for the subsidy and priced fuel from their pumps at Rs 8-10 a litre higher.
In a major boost to oil majors aspiring to tap the retail oil sales market worth $15 billion a year, the government on Monday allowed marketing licence holders to import petrol and diesel.
India has asked refiners that owe about $6.5 billion to Iran for oil imports to build up dollar and euro balances to avoid downward pressure on the rupee if six world powers and Tehran reach a final nuclear deal.
The pricing and marketing freedom for exploitation would be capped by a ceiling price.
Inputs by the Petroleum Ministry were found among stolen documents.
Reliance plans to shut two-third of its 1,400 petrol pumps in the country by next month as it is unable to match the fuel price offered by state-run retailers, who get compensated by the government for selling fuel below the cost. Reliance and Essar make huge losses on selling petrol and diesel at prices higher than Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. On an average, fuel at private outlets is costlier by Rs 4 to 5 a litre than the PSU pumps.
Four people died and some others were injured when a fire broke out in a pipeline of Essar's Vadinar oil terminal near its refinery in Jamnagar district in the early hours on Thursday, official sources said.
Since May 1, the dynamic fuel pricing model has been applied on a pilot basis in 5 cities
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