State-owned oil firms have seen their losses on diesel sales widen to over Rs 6 per litre, even as a ministerial panel meeting on raising prices has not yet been scheduled.
The government had in May last year disallowed $1.005 billion expense of RIL on the flagging KG-D6 gas fields for not implementing the approved field development plan.
The ministry has attributed the fall in output to non-fulfilment of RIL's commitment to drill 22 wells in the field.
Petrol and diesel are among the 90-plus commodities that have been approved by the government for derivatives trading
The Delhi high court (HC) division Bench on Thursday sought a response from Reliance Industries (RIL) and others regarding the government's appeal against the Mukesh Ambani-owned conglomerate and others for fraudulently and unjustly enriching themselves by draining gas from their deposits, amounting to over $1.5 billion. The Centre had appealed against the single-judge Bench order of the Delhi HC on May 9, which had dismissed its petition. Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani had upheld the international arbitration award of July 24, 2018, in favour of the RIL-led consortium. The consortium includes UK-based BP Plc and Niko Resources of Canada.
The government will next week launch the 9th round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy for the oil and gas sector.
ONGC sought opinion from the second highest law officer of the country after its partner Cairn Energy Plc stated that the UK firm's sale of majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources will not trigger pre-emption rights of the state- owned firm, a top oil ministry official said.
A host of factors including the reform measures taken by the government and decline in global oil and commodity prices have led to lower inflation, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.
Natural gas output from KG-D6 in the week ended June 24 dropped to 30.82 mscmd from 31.57 mmcmd in the beginning of the month, according to a status report filed by the company with the Oil Ministry.
Continuing its attack on Petroleum Ministry, Anil Ambani group on Thursday criticised it for its failure to attract top global players for oil and gas exploration and production due to lack of sanctity attached to concluded contracts.
The government is planning to rationalise multiple prices of natural gas in the country to make fuel costs uniform for all consumers, Oil Secretary S Sundareshan said on Wednesday.
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.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had, in the Budget for 2008-09, announced end to income tax holidays for refineries commissioning after April 1, 2009. The Budget also mentioned tax breaks under section 80-IB(9) would be available for production of 'mineral oil', which was defined as not to include petroleum and natural gas. This created a lot of confusion among investors and a fear of poor response took Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to Chidambaram earlier this week.
State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Adani-Total Gas Ltd and Shell were among the 29 companies that bid and bought natural gas to be produced from the deepest field in the KG-D6 block of Reliance Industries Ltd and bp, sources said. IOC walked away with almost half of the 6 million standard cubic meters per day of gas sold in an e-auction on Wednesday while state-owned gas utility GAIL bought 0.7 mmscmd, Adani-Total Gas Ltd 0.4 mmscmd, Shell 0.5 mmscmd, GSPC 0.25 mmscmd and IGS another 0.5 mmscmd, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Reliance-bp on Wednesday held an e-auction for sale of gas from the MJ field in their eastern offshore KG-D6 block after incorporating the government's new marketing rules to give CNG-selling city gas companies first priority over supplies.
This means lower losses on fuel sales by Indian oil companies and a shrinking oil subsidy bill for the government.
India's oil import bill has swelled 52 per cent to $44.64 billion in 2005-06 on the back of high global oil prices.
Terming allegations levelled by India Against Corruption as "baseless and frivolous, the oil ministry in a six-page statement said the Congress-led UPA-I and UPA-II governments under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have been "consistently protecting the national interest".
L N Mittal's foray into oil and gas trading business through a joint venture with ONGC is facing fresh opposition from refiner Indian Oil Corp, which feels the JV is ineligible to bid for its tenders.
India's crude oil imports soared over 8 per cent in July to match rise in fuel consumption that continued to be propelled by double-digit growth in diesel demand.
The connections will be released on completion of Know Your Customer formalities and de-duplication of the applicants across all the three Oil Companies to ensure that multiple connections are not released.
Speaking at a joint press event with Macron, Modi, who is in Paris on a two-day official visit, said a roadmap to strengthen India-France strategic ties over the next 25 years was being prepared with bold and ambitious goals on the anvil.
According to Oil Ministry sources, price hike of diesel is being considered as the government scrambles to find ways to meet an unprecedented Rs 160,000 crore (Rs 1,600 billion) deficit expected this fiscal on selling diesel, cooking gas and kerosene below their production cost.
At present, in Myanmar, GAIL and IndianOil have a minority stake in a gas pipeline which goes to China, through South East Asia Gas Pipeline Company.
The wholesale price-based inflation declined to over two-year low of 3.85 per cent in January on easing prices of manufactured items, fuel and power, even though food articles remained expensive. This is the ninth straight month of decline in the rate of wholesale price-index (WPI) based inflation. The WPI inflation was 4.73 per cent in January and 13.43 per cent in February, last year.
The 5-kg cylinder will be price at market rate.
The government may in 'weeks' decide on raising price of natural gas produced by state-owned ONGC and Oil India by 30 per cent, petroleum secretary S Sundareshan said on Monday.
India plans to further cut imports from Iran by 13 per cent next fiscal even though easing of US and western sanctions has made buying crude oil from the Persian Gulf nation easier.
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The Oil Ministry on October 31 issued orders asking upstream oil and gas producers like ONGC and Oil India Ltd to give Rs 16,729.74 crore (Rs 167.29 billion) to make up for 47 per cent of the Rs 35,328-crore (Rs 353.28 billion) revenue that retailers lost on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government controlled rates in second quarter.
Insiders said she remained closeted with top railway officials for hours finalising the Budget on Tuesday and left her Rail Bhawan office only at 3.30 am on Wednesday.
India's oil ministry has decided to divert 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of indigenous crude oil from refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp, which is being privatised, to feed small state-run refineries in remote areas, officials said.
SpiceJet grounded all its aircraft due to payment woes
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