Russia has been grappling with sanctions slapped by the US and its allies over Moscow's invasion of Crimea.
Deora told Business Standard that a substantial volume of kerosene was also smuggled across the border, since the prices there were much higher. He added the government may have to rework various measures taken so far to curb the menace.
RIL said it had launched 'an internal probe' into its staff's detention.
India will kickstart on Tuesday a two-day multi-agency military exercise covering the country's 7,516 km-long coastline and exclusive economic zone with the twin aim of checking the preparedness of various agencies to deal with any eventualities and bolster overall maritime security, officials said.
After natural gas prices, the government looks set to bite the bullet on auto fuel prices, with a panel of ministers scheduled to meet on June 7 to decide on freeing petrol and diesel prices.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) may have won a large oil block in Venezuela but the Petroleum Ministry wants Reliance Industries to join the project to give stability to the venture.
The government has chosen state-run GAIL (India) Ltd over Reliance Industries in setting up a Rs 2,500 crore gas cracker project in Assam.
Companies such as ONGC and Reliance have not been able to meet their work commitments for the blocks they had won under the New Exploration Licensing Policy rounds because of a crunch in availability of deep-sea drilling rigs. The official said oil ministry is moving a note for the consideration of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for giving a drilling holiday from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2010, for 33 blocks awarded in the fifth round of NELP.
A proposal in the Union Budget 2022-23 to raise excise duty on dirtier, unblended retail petrol and diesel has met with some resistance from the petroleum ministry. However, finance ministry officials say no such communication arguing against the levy of extra duty on diesel has been received from the oil ministry. Until there are discussions between the two departments, the proposal will not be tweaked in the Finance Bill. The Rs 2 per litre additional excise duty proposed on unblended fuels in the Finance Bill will result in a uniform hike of diesel prices across the country from October 1.
This is significantly higher than the government revenues of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) that ADAG has been claiming in an advertising campaign that it launched on August 17. The exercise marks the first time the directorate general of hydrocarbon, the upstream oil regulator, has worked out such an estimate. The exercise is not carried out in the normal course for oil or gas fields.
The Prime Minister's office is understood to have declined an extension to Subir Raha, the high profile chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
Banking and energy sector companies are the highest advance tax paying corporates in the country, owing to a surge in business and personal lending coupled with rising energy consumption, according to finance ministry sources.
Reliance Industries Ltd plans to invest over Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) in laying 5,895 km of product pipelines across the country as a precursor to begin the retailing of petrol and diesel.
The Petroleum Federation of India, the apex body of public and private oil firms, has submitted to the oil ministry a 100-day agenda for the new government. On top of its list is decontrol of petrol and diesel prices. Currently, public sector retailers sell auto fuel at government-dictated rates, which the private sector competition is unable to match in times of high input cost (crude oil prices).
The finance ministry has asked state-run oil companies to shell out an interim dividend of Rs 2,600 crore (Rs 26 billion) for the year to March 2003, a government official
The Turkmenistan event underscores the lengths to which China's oil-and-gas companies will go to curry favour in resource-rich locales.
Industrialist Anil Ambani on Tuesday dared the petroleum ministry to take back the ownership of gas fields from Reliance Industries Ltd if it seriously believed that terms of the contract were violated by Mukesh Ambani-led firm, which he alleged was wanting to make a super-profit of Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion).
LN Mittal is getting a senior bureaucrat from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to run his first-ever venture in the refining business, the Rs 18,919 crore (Rs 189.19 billion) Bhatinda refinery.
The irony, of course, is that even the suggestion that the petroleum and natural gas ministry thought was practical and workable has few takers in the government. Among the many suggestions on petroleum product prices, the Chaturvedi Committee had recommended dual pricing of diesel.
Home minister P Chidambaram, who briefed reporters on the Cabinet decisions, said in his opinion there was no bar on the government from announcing a price cut even after polls are announced. State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are selling petrol at almost break-even point while they make Rs 3.26 a litre profit on diesel sales.
Annapurna Devi, Subhas Sarkar and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh will be the new ministers of state for education.
India's crude oil production rose by 3.2 per cent in May on back of better performance by state- owned oil major Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), while refinery output remained unchanged.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved a three-month extension in Sudan's service, beyond the date of her superannuation, i.e. April 30, a personnel ministry order said. She will continue to function as the secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare during the period, it said.
Cairn India has received a government approval that will enable it to proceed with the development of a pipeline to transport oil from its flagship fields in Rajasthan.
Oil India and other PSUs had filed clarificatory /modificatory petition before the Supreme Court. These companies own and operate telecom networks though they do not provide telecom services.
With this the only minister without a portfolio is Oscar Fernandes
Punjab has sent an email saying that four deaths suspected to be due to lack of oxygen have been reported in a private hospital in Amritsar district, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a written reply.
The Cabinet has approved a framework of understanding on cooperation in hydrocarbons with Bangladesh recently.
Subir Raha, chairman and managing director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, has not been given an extension by the government and he will have to hang his boots by this evening.
After Nigeria, Libya has invited Indian oil firms to operate its old refineries after investing in their revamp and has offered New Delhi rights to explore oil in the country.
The government has approved the merger of fuel retailer IBP Co Ltd with IOC in an amalgamation that would provide the state-run refiner improve profits and allow the new entity to compete against private firms and multinationals.
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