'Given that the situation is quickly escalating, such attacks will affect the flow of crude in the short term from West Asia' Subhayan Chakraborty and Dhruvaksh Saha report.
Addressing a press conference on measures taken during 21-days lockdown imposed from March 25 to contain the spread of Covid-19, MHA joint secretary Punya Salila Srivastva said the situation of essential goods and services is under control. To strengthen this situation, the home ministry has written to state governments that both inter-state and intra-state movement of trucks and goods carriers should be allowed during the 21-day countrywide lockdown announced by the central government irrespective of the cargo being essential or non-essential.
India's economic growth will be above 6 per cent in the current fiscal as the country has managed to strengthen its macroeconomic stability and performance even in a period of large global shocks, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Member Ashima Goyal said on Monday. Goyal further said that a global slowdown reducing India's export growth, geopolitics fueling oil and food prices, and erratic weather are some of the continuing risks that the country faces. "India has managed to strengthen its macroeconomic stability and performance even in a period of large global shocks.
While Arun Jaitley remains part of the decision making process, Piyush Goyal, who was given additional charge on May 14, attends cabinet meetings and takes the day-to-day decisions.
No government in the past initiated the process of policy making for its next tenure even before going in for elections. Once the Model Code of Conduct is enforced by the Election Commission, should the government of the day refrain from taking an active interest in policy making for the next five years and let that be the function of the new government?, asks A K Bhattacharya.
Softening its stand on CAG audit, Reliance Industries has agreed to a scrutiny of its expenses in the flagging KG-D6 gas block by the official auditor even after expiry of the contractual period.
Prices may go up because of higher energy costs, caused by the rise in shipping charges, with commercial vessels taking a longer route to avoid the troubled Red Sea region, the finance ministry said on Monday. Iran-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen are repeatedly attacking ships in the Red Sea. While the global economy is grappling with challenges such as sticky inflation, sluggish growth, and mounting fiscal pressure, India's external sector could face "potential risks" due to the ongoing geopolitical tensions, according to the finance ministry's report on the review of the Indian economy.
As China's Foreign Minister Sun Weidong visited Pakistan on a mediation mission, a statement from Foreign Ministry on Monday said it is maintaining close contacts with Pakistan and Iran to 'bridge their differences'.
Pradhan said a National Data Repository which will store information on all sedimentary basins of the country is being pursued on top priority.
Upstream regulator DGH has suggested that the $1.235-billion investment of Reliance Industries should be disallowed over the Mukesh Ambani-run firm's failure to adhere to prestated drilling and gas production targets, but the oil ministry is yet to agree on the numbers.
Growth of eight key infrastructure sectors rose to 8 per cent in July 2023 compared to 4.8 per cent in the same month last year on expansion in production of coal, crude oil, and natural gas, according to the official data released on Thursday. Production of steel, cement and electricity also grew in July, the data showed.
Officials from State-run refiners contend that savings from purchase of Russian oil are used to offset a part of the losses in revenues from selling transport fuels and LPG at State-set rates.
Days after a CAG draft report said his firm got out of turn favours from the oil ministry and its technical arm DGH, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The committee on allocation of natural resources said in its draft report said, "In the ideal scenario, a gas pooling arrangement, with a view to mitigate price volatility is not recommended".
Steel manufacturers on Wednesday hit out at 'unilateral' decision of the Oil Ministry to curb natural gas supplies from Reliance Industries' KG-D6 fields to non-core users, saying only a ministerial panel was empowered to take such decision.
Privatisation of BPCL, which was dubbed India's biggest ever, has been stalled with just one bidder left in the fray after two others walked out over issues such as lack of clarity in fuel pricing, a top source said. The government had planned to sell its entire 52.98 per cent stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and invited Expression of Interest from bidders in March 2020. At least three bids came in by November 2020 but only one remains now after the others withdrew from the race.
Prices of natural gas, which is used to generate electricity, make fertiliser and is converted into CNG to run automobiles, is likely to rise to record levels at the rate review scheduled this week, sources said. The government-dictated price for natural gas produced in the country is to be revised on October 1. After factoring in the spike in energy prices witnessed in recent months, the rate paid for gas produced from old fields such as of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is likely to rise to $9 per million British thermal units from current $6.1.
Price said India's relationship with Russia developed over several decades.
The rupee tumbled 19 paise to close at a fresh lifetime low of 77.93 against the US dollar on Friday as rising crude oil prices and unabated foreign capital outflows soured sentiment. A sell-off in equity markets and stronger greenback overseas also weighed on the domestic unit, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 77.81 and witnessed an intra-day high of 77.79 and a low of 77.93 against the US dollar.
The agency has registered the FIR after a preliminary enquiry on a complaint from the oil ministry.
Petroleum Minister Ram Naik sought, on Thursday, excise duty cut on petroleum products to check adverse impact of excessive volatality in international crude oil prices on domestic prices
India will need to travel back in time and seek inspiration from football greats Tulsidas Balaram and Chuni Goswami to deftly dribble around and sidestep the West-imposed price cap on exports of Russian seaborne crude oil. India depends on imported oil to meet 86 per cent of its needs, of which nearly a quarter now comes from Russia. The copious flows are roughly 10 per cent cheaper than competing suppliers helping India save billions of dollars in fuel costs.
The government is pushing the public sector behemoth ONGC to involve private sector companies and service providers wherever possible to help raise oil and gas production, Petroleum Secretary Tarun Kapoor said Thursday. Kapoor's comments came days after the second-highest ranked official in his ministry asked Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to give away a 60 per cent stake plus operating control in India's largest oil and gas producing fields of Mumbai High and Bassein to foreign companies. "ONGC has to explore more so that it can discover more oil and gas reserves and bring them quickly to production to raise domestic output. The government is very clear that ONGC has to do more," he told reporters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday received Bhutan's highest civilian award, the 'Order of the Druk Gyalpo', making him the first foreign Head of the Government to receive the honour.
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.
UK's Cairn Energy has informed Oil Ministry that it will comply with all contractual obligations in selling majority stake in its Indian arm and that London-listed Vedanta Resources was a fit candidate to take over operations.
China Thursday offered to play a 'constructive role' to ease tension between Pakistan and Iran following their missile strikes against each other over the last two days and asked the two countries to 'exercise restraint and calmness and avoid escalation'.
The wholesale price index-based inflation remained in the negative territory for the sixth straight month in September at (-)0.26 per cent, on easing prices of food articles. The WPI-based inflation rate has been in the negative since April and was (-)0.52 per cent in August. In September last year, it was 10.55 per cent.
These 7 blocks are adding exploration acreage of 18,510 square kilometres spread over three sedimentary basins of India and have a resource potential of approximately 33 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas.
Petrol pumps across the country will go on strike from September 20, with a petroleum traders' union warning of "no money, no purchase, no sale..." after talks with the Oil Ministry to hike the rate of commission on fuel sales fell through.
Government considering proposal to allow conversion of used cooking oil into biodiesel, say Shine Jacob and Shreya Jai.
Every dollar increase in crude oil price will add Rs 4,000 crore to the overall underrecovery.
Oil prices have declined by more than 60 per cent since January with benchmark crude falling well below $30 per barrel, driven by an acute oil demand decline caused by the coronavirus and a lack of production cuts by OPEC and other oil producing countries.
Teheran bargains on OilMin plan for more rupee payment via increased import; wants investment deal on gas block.
While a new formula for pricing of all domestically produced natural gas was notified on January 10 and published in Gazettee on January 17, the Election Commission last month asked the government to defer its implementation till general elections are completed.
Ministry to propose a new subsidy mechanism to cap upstream firms' share.
India on Thursday said it is closely watching the unfolding situation in the Red Sea, amid growing global concerns over Houthi militants stepping up attacks on several commercial ships in the region.
The ministry of petroleum has approached the finance ministry to seek permission to give additional bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore to the three public sector oil marketing companies --Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd--to help them close the last fiscal with a profit.
Iraq has urged the international community to help prevent ISIS from gleaning profits from oil smuggling
