In what could be a Diwali gift for the common man, government on Thursday said in the Lok Sabha that an announcement on reduction of fuel prices will be made within a week, keeping in view the falling global crude prices.
A prime minister-appointed expert group, headed by Kirit Parikh, suggested on Wednesday freeing petrol and diesel prices and suggested raising liquid petroleum gas rates by a steep Rs 100 per cylinder and kerosene by Rs 6 a litre.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is believed to be in favour of giving state-run oil firms freedom to fix price of petrol and diesel in step with cost, as he feels the current moderate global oil rates may be the last window India has to deregulate fuel pricing.
India-born billionaire Lakshmi N Mittal will invest Rs 3,200 crore (Rs 32 billion) in taking 49 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd's $3 billion Bhatinda refinery.
The United Progressive Alliance government on Thursday announced slashing petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2 and Re 1 per litre, respectively, with effect from midnight on Thursday -- as part of measures to tame soaring inflation.
The petroleum ministry's call for an immediate Re 1 cut in excise duty on diesel has been rejected by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Indian Oil Corporation wants to set up a petrochemical plant in Yemen provided it is allocated a gasfield, a senior company official said on Friday.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Friday said the government would wait for international crude prices to stabilise before announcing any cuts in domestic petrol and diesel prices.
The woman made her threat as the minister ended answering questions on his recent visit to China along with senior officials of his ministry, ONGC and other agencies.
The gas row between the Ambani brothers had its echo in the Lok Sabha on Thursday with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav making a strong plea for gas from Reliance at cheaper rates for state-owned NTPC, a plea also being used by the Anil Ambani group.
Iran on Tuesday indicated that it may be willing to change the delivery point of gas it wants to sell to India through a pipeline passing through Pakistan, but wanted New Delhi and Islamabad to decide quickly on the $7.4 billion project.
Black clouds of smoke were billowing from the tanks, and could be seen at least from a distance of ten kms on the Jaipur-Tonk highway. District Collector Kuldeep Ranka told PTI that a charred body was clearly visible near the IOC tank premises, but it was not possible to reach and recover it.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi discussed the Rs 225,040 crore (Rs 2250.40 billion) revenue loss oil PSUs face without raising price of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene and duty cuts this fiscal on three occasions but failed to give a clear verdict.
The government on Wednesday launched a new marker system to detect adulteration of kerosene in petrol and diesel.\n\n
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have used a mix of charm and roguish coercion to let India know that he expected the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline proposal to become a reality in 45 days. But India is in no hurry to take a decision, a top Cabinet minister in the United Progressive Alliance government said. The volatile political environment in Iran and Pakistan has as much weightage now and the UPA government is becoming more reluctant.
Officers of state-owned oil companies, who late last night deferred their proposed indefinite strike by three weeks, on Tuesday dropped the strike plan completely after a meeting with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.
The foundation laying ceremony of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's petrochemical complex in Mangalore was postponed due to heavy rains.
Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines owes state-run oil companies over Rs 950 crore (Rs 9.50 billion0 in unpaid fuel bills while financial crisis-hit NACIL has cleared almost two-thirds of its outstanding.
The ministry, however, clarified that there was no change in the prices of kerosene and LPG.
GoM meeting regarding petro product price hike has been postponed and a decision on the prices will come only after Jan 28.
Petroleum minister Murli Deora discussed the idea of levy of $0.20 per million British thermal unit as cess on natural gas to mop up Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) annually for laying down the gas pipeline network with CEOs of state-run firms. The brainstorming session called to chalk out the 100-day plan for the new government also decided on launching a new Scheme of Rural LPG Distributor (Gramin LPG Vitrak), petroleum secretary R S Pandey said.
The NSE Nifty ended at 4,449, up 112 points. The market breadth was positive - out of 2,852 stocks traded, 2,147 advanced while 649 declined.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will kick off a massive energy conservation drive on Saturday with the launch of an insurance scheme for auto and taxi drivers using environment friendly CNG as fuel in Mumbai.
India, Pakistan and Iran will for the first time hold a joint official-level meeting in Tehran from March 13-15 on the proposed over $7 billion tri-nation gas pipeline
The government on Wednesday denied any move to hive-off ONGC Videsh Ltd from its parent Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, saying the present arrangement of letting the subsidiary company scout for overseas oil and gas assets was working well.
The government on Thursday decided not to increase petrol and diesel prices, and issue oil bonds worth Rs 23,457 crore (Rs 234.57 billion) to partly compensate public sector oil companies for the losses incurred on fuel sales."We have kept our promise of not raising prices of sensitive petroleum products," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told PTI after a meeting of the Cabinet.
The price of the Indian basket of crude oil touched an all-time high of $75.30 per barrel on Thursday, the latest day for which data are available, sending alarm bells ringing in the government.
The average price of Indian basket of crude oil during 2007-08 (upto August) has increased to $68.34 per barrel as compared to 62.46 dollars a barrel during 2006-07.
As crude oil prices hover around four-year lows, the government may look at slashing diesel prices further that will help cool inflation by lowering goods transportation charges.
The strike had threatened to cripple aviation refuelling and refinery operations, oil and gas production and auto fuel as well as domestic cooking gas supplies.
The fall in international oil prices has resulted in handsome margins for state-owned firms on petrol and diesel sales, but not all of it would be reflected in the cut in the retail selling price, as Finance Ministry wants to take away some of the gain by raising excise duty.
Mittal said his steel plants were getting gas at no less than $6 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), much lower than the $4.33 per mBtu price proposed by RIL.
On December 5, the government had announced a Rs 5 per litre and Rs 2 a litre reduction in petrol and diesel prices, respectively, as global crude prices hovered around four year lows.
The government has cut petrol price by Rs 5 and diesel by 2 a litre with effect from midnight tonight.
The government will cut petrol and diesel prices after Assembly elections are over on December 24, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Tuesday.
Minster of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora on Monday commissioned the first stretch of the Dahej - Panvel - Dabhol pipeline from Dahej to Surat.
The first stretch of Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline, which will feed natural gas to the beleaguered Dabhol power project in Maharashtra, has been commissioned.
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