It is rare for Cabinet ministers to tick off state-owned companies publicly, yet that was what then petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan did for ONGC. Speaking at an event on June 29, Pradhan said he has asked India's premier exploration company to find fresh oil acreages fast. "Do it yourself through some joint venture (or) through a new business model. But the government cannot permit you to hold resources for an indefinite time." The reason for this stricture is India's rising dependence on imported oil and gas. Or, to put it another way, falling domestic production (see chart: "Crude truth"), especially from ONGC, which faces a simple problem.
At a time when crude oil and natural gas prices are sky-high, public sector behemoth ONGC's haphazard planning and mismanagement in developing showpiece deep-sea KG-D5 block is costing the nation over Rs 18,000 crores due to the delayed output of oil and gas, government officials said. ONGC was originally to start gas production from the Cluster-II fields in block KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) in June 2019 and the first oil was to flow in March 2020. But these targets were quietly shifted to end-2021 because of deferments in awarding the fragmented work packages of the project, two officials with direct knowledge of the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The 'failure' to drill the committed 50 wells on the KG-D6 fields led to natural gas output dramatically falling over the past three years.
India's cities must switch over to piped gas leaving LPG cylinders.
In the wake of opposition from the law ministry and the Department of Public Enterprises, the petroleum ministry
The appointment of this former envoy to China assumes significance in view of preparations being made to address border issues ahead of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India next month.
Capital expenditure (capex) by 54 large central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and five departmental arms with an annual capex target of Rs 100 crore and above has reached around 42.5 per cent of their annual target of about Rs 7.33 trillion in this financial year so far, a senior official from the Ministry of Finance told Business Standard. "The Centre is pushing the big public undertakings in the infrastructure and refinery sector to achieve 90 per cent of their target by the end of the third quarter," he said. The capex by this group of CPSEs stands at around Rs 3.1 trillion in the April-August period so far.
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will visit Pakistan from June 3 to boost energy ties and discuss the $4.16 billion Iran-India gas pipeline project.\n\n
While previously selling of the marketing business, possibly to another state-owned firm, was being considered, the government is now mulling on hiving off the pipelines into a separate entity and selling off a majority stake in it.
The auditor said that it has unfettered right of access to all records of Reliance Industries (RIL) during its audit of operations in the Krishna-Godavari basin and would override any conditions sought to be imposed on the process.
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.
A bench of Justice R Y Ganoo and Justice N M Jamdar ordered service of notices to the respondents, who apart from the central ministries also include the oil marketing companies, namely the Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
Disinvestment secretary Sunil Mitra last month wrote to his counterpart in Petroleum ministry R S Pandey seeking comments on 'public offerings from Government's shareholding' in ONGC and IOC. While government has not allowed IOC and other retailers Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum to raise petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene price in line with the cost, they have not been given the promised compensation.
Undoing Mani Shankar Aiyar's move to exercise greater control on public sector oil firms, the petroleum ministry has restricted the number of government directors on boards of public sector oil companies to just two.
The petroleum ministry has said Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is not right in seeking an out-of-turn rise in the price of natural gas produced from the KG-D6 fields and asserted the $4.205 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) rate will prevail unless pricing formula is changed.
The Ministry Of Petroleum and Natural Gas has ruled out a hike in the prices of petrol and diesel in the near future even as the price of the Indian basket of crude oil continues to remain above $65 a barrel.
The move is likely to force the government to take a faster decision.
BC Tripathi, who helms India's largest natural gas marketer and transporter -- GAIL, discusses last-mile connectivity to homes with Jyoti Mukul and Shine Jacob.
The oil companies will meet on Friday for the review meeting on pricing in which petrol price could be increased by Re 1 and diesel prices by 50 paise by this weekend.
A day ahead of a crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment, Defence Minister George Fernandes said he favoured public sector units like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to be allowed to bid for HPCL.
Differences between ministries of divestment and petroleum are likely to surface at Fridays meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment as the former is believed to have proposed keeping public sector units.
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation approached the petroleum ministry on Thursday with an initial proposal for permission to bid for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation as and when the government decides to offer its stake in the PSU.
Iran on Tuesday denied existence of any contract for export of liquefied natural gas to India while stating that it cannot wait endlessly for New Delhi to join the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
Top government officials in New Delhi have started discussions with stakeholders ranging from shipping and container companies to export promotion councils to understand the impact of the Iran-Israel tensions and plan ahead. Inter-ministerial talks are also being lined up amid the crisis situation in West Asia, sources confirmed. While the crude flows are not directly under any threat, elevated oil prices remain a concern, according to officials.
Low-to-negative margins on sale of petroleum products have forced some companies to scrap their retail expansion plan, while others have chosen to go slow.
To proceed with a Cabinet proposal to grant the relaxations to RIL, the Election Commission's approval will be sought.
The ICICI board is looking to the retired petroleum secretary to provide 'maturity and sagacity'.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Minister of State for Petroleum Jitin Prasada took charge on Friday.
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
The wholesale price-based inflation rose to a four-month high of 14.55 per cent in March, mainly due to hardening of crude oil and commodity prices, even though vegetables witnessed easing of price pressures. As per the government data released on Monday, WPI inflation has remained in double digits for the 12th consecutive month beginning April 2021. The last time such a level of WPI was recorded was in November 2021, when inflation was 14.87 per cent.
India may be trying to become a crude oil refining hub but the country's apex planning body has raised doubts on the feasibility of adding more refining capacity.
Not only does there appear to be no meeting ground on the issue of a pricing formula proposed by the committee, the petroleum ministry wants another committee headed by Vijay Kelkar to look into the other major recommendation of moving to the revenue sharing model in exploration and production.
