With the new owner shelling out Rs 18,000 crore for the buyout of 'Maharaja' this would be the highest ever amount garnered through privatisation or even the cumulative sum garnered through strategic sale in 1999-00 to 2003-04. The government had garnered roughly over Rs 5,000 crore during that five-year period by privatising 10 CPSEs.
The Oil Ministry has approved part sale of government's stake in Oil and Natural Gas Corp as well as Indian Oil Crop, a move that could fetch about Rs 24,000 crore (Rs 240 billion) for the Centre this fiscal.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp plans to invest more than Rs 23,000 crore (Rs 230 billion) over the next five years in adding new capacities at the existing refineries and building a new refinery at Paradip in Orissa.
The Petroleum Ministry has asked for Rs 26,000 crore (Rs 260 billion) as fuel subsidy for the third quarter of this financial year, but the finance ministry is inclined to provide only Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) cash support.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on Friday said international oil prices have been range-bound in the last few weeks, warranting no revision in retail petrol and diesel rates. While petrol price hasn't changed since September 22, diesel rates have been static from October 2.
India's latest bid round for 21 oil and gas blocks attracted just three bidders, two of whom were state-owned explorers Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), according to upstream regulator DGH. As many as 21 blocks or areas were offered for exploration and production of oil and gas in the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Bid Round-VI, for which bidding closed on October 6. Besides ONGC and OIL, Sun Petrochemicals was the only other company to have bid, according to 'Summary of Bids Received Against Offered Blocks' posted by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).
Indian Oil Corp is unlikely to bid for a share in six new pipelines being built by Reliance Industries to transport fuel from its refinery to its planned chain of petrol stations.\n\n\n\n
The US Export-Import Bank said on Tuesday that it will provide $75 million in loan guarantees for exports of US technology, equipment and services to build Indian Oil Corp's Rs 5104 crore (Rs 51.04 billion) integrated petrochemical complex at Panipat
The initial public offering of the Sri Lankan unit of Indian Oil Corp was oversubscribed more than three times. "The IPO raised (Sri Lankan) Rs 359.99 crore (Rs 3.59 billion)," company officials said.
There will be corresponding price revisions on petrol and diesel in other states on account of change in dealer commission
The country's largest refiner Indian Oil Corp is planning an initial public offer of its Sri Lankan subsidiary Lanka IOC by June this year to raise between $20-25 million.
India on Monday lost the ONGC Videsh Ltd-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf after Iran awarded a contract for developing the giant gas field to a local company. "The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a contract worth $1.78 billion with Petropars Group for the development of Farzad B Gas Field in the Persian Gulf," the Iranian oil ministry's official news service Shana reported. "The deal was signed on Monday, May 17, in a ceremony held in the presence of Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh in Tehran." The field holds 23 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves, of which about 60 per cent is recoverable.
"We will be guided by our national interest," he said.
India's imports from Iran rose to 250,200 barrels per day
The environment ministry is likely to soon issue regulations that will mandate automakers to recycle a specified percentage of steel from old vehicles, starting from the next financial year, according to people familiar with the matter. "We recently held a meeting with members of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). "The final regulations are likely to be issued in the next 10 days," a government source informed.
This is the first time that petrol sales in the world's third-largest oil importer have risen since the March 25 nationwide lockdown crippled economic activity and sent demand plummeting.
The increase in rates announced by oil firms is excluding state levies and the actual hike will be higher.
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.
The price of petrol has risen by 83 paise per litre in the past nine days and diesel by 73 paise
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.
Petrol price was on Wednesday hiked by a steep Rs 3.38 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.67 a litre, reversing a two-month declining trend.
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has suggested pricking the ballooning oil bill with everything from a street theatre campaign encouraging lower fuel use, to shutting fuel stations, to increasing imports from Iran.
Five out of the top 10 companies in Fortune 500 list of Indian companies are from the oil sector.
After a hiatus of nearly two decades, the government's programme to privatise state-owned firms restarted with the handing over of debt-laden national carrier Air India to the Tata Group. With the new owner shelling out Rs 18,000 crore for the buyout of the 'Maharaja', this would be the highest-ever amount garnered through privatisation, and is even more than the cumulative sum mopped up through strategic sales from 1999-00 to 2003-04. The government had in October last year inked the share purchase agreement with the Tata Group for sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Tatas would pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt.
This is the second straight increase in ATF price this month. Rates were hiked by a record 56.5 per cent (Rs 12,126.75 per kl) on June 1. Simultaneously, petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the 10th day in a row.
IOC said the movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely
Petrol and diesel prices are likely to be cut by close to Re 1 per litre this weekend on sliding global oil rates.
Reliance Industries Ltd, India's sole private sector refiner, on Monday sought Petroleum Minister Ram Naik's help in getting public sector oil companies to buy fuel from its 33 million tonne Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat.
The movement of prices in international oil market and rupee-dollar exchange rate shall continue to be closely monitored
Gandhi said the one paisa cut in petrol rates was not a "suitable response" to the fuel challenge he threw to the prime minister a few days ago.
Petrol price was on Saturday cut by Rs 0.50 per litre but there will be no change in rates of diesel.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is deploying drones to monitor its vast network of pipelines across the country as it doubles down on the use of technology to thwart attempts to steal fuel, helping not just save the commodity but also avoid accidents. The country's top oil company already uses a combination of sophisticated technology and patrolling to detect any leakage from the pipeline network spanning over 15,000-kilometers. And now, it is adding drones to monitor the vast network, officials said. Use of technology helped throttle 34 attempts to pilfer fuel and arrest 53 persons in the 2020-21 fiscal year, they said adding the latest incident was in Sonipat, Haryana on August 17.
The department believes dividend from CPSUs is a return on investment made by the government.
The merged entity will become the third biggest refiner behind IOC and Reliance Industries.
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).
IOC has been forced to shut down its Digboi refinery in Assam and is operating Guwahati unit at minimal throughput, while OIL has been forced to shut LPG production and its crude oil production has dropped by 15-20%. Sources said the agitation has blocked the movement of tankers and trucks, which are mostly used to supply petrol, diesel and LPG from the refineries to different parts of the North East.
Jet fuel (ATF) rates were on slashed by a steep 12.5 per cent, the sixth straight reduction in prices since August, as international oil prices slumped to five-year low levels.
No immediate comment was available from airlines on the impact of the price hike on passenger fares.
'Gorkhas are terrific soldiers. They are known the world over for their fighting qualities.'
The National Security Strategy document should flag all major issues concerning security strategy and provide guidelines to concerned departments to work out suitable action plans. Since the global and regional geopolitical canvas is dynamic, the NSS document should be deliberated at length before formulation and should be reviewed periodically, recommends Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
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