The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will pay Rs 852 crore (Rs 8.52 billion) for subsidising petrol and diesel during January-March quarter but state gas utility GAIL India has been spared from the subsidy burden.
Full-service carrier Kingfisher Airlines has sought permission from the petroleum ministry to extend the date for paying dues to public sector oil companies for aviation turbine fuel.
The Union petroleum ministry has proposed a 44 per cent increase in prices of natural gas sold under the administered price mechanism by state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India Ltd.
Chinese high-resolution satellites have found three oil slicks which scientists believe might be linked to the missing Malaysian plane, providing a new direction to the multinational search operations which have failed to spot the wreckage.
The government may for the first time in about five years raise price of natural gas produced by state-owned firms like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation after the finance ministry and the Planning Commission backed the proposal for a 30 per cent hike.
Clearing the last hurdle, the Union home ministry has given unconditional approval for United Kingdom's BP to buy a 30 per cent stake in Reliance Industries' oil and gas blocks, including the showcase KG-D6 gas fields, for $7.2 billion.
The finance ministry had recommended that the government disinvest 10 per cent of its stake in the proposed initial public offer of Oil India, a state-owned upstream company, said Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.
Petroleum secretary G C Chaturvedi said the arbitration notice grants a time of up to a month to respond and there was no hurry.
India is the third largest consumer of petroleum products, after the US and China.
Vasudeva, 57, is currently director (offshore) in ONGC.
With foreign investment almost drying up in India's oil and gas sector, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has promised an overhaul to make policies predictable, transparent and fair to investors.
Among the Sensex firms, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Nestle, Maruti, JSW Steel, NTPC and Larsen & Toubro were the major laggards. Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel were the gainers.
India has asked bulk buyers to pay market rates for diesel since last January and has also been raising the price of subsidised diesel in small amounts every month in an effort to cut its ballooning fuel subsidies.
India's ONGC has lost the giant Kashagan oilfield to the Chinese after Kazakhstan blocked its $5 billion deal to buy US energy major ConocoPhillips' stake in the Caspian Sea oilfield.
RIL this week wrote to the ministry offering to give away 4,266 sq km of the Krishna Godavari basin block, sources privy to the development said.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India's largest oil producer, bagged eight out of the 18 oil and gas block awarded today while country's largest private sector firm Reliance Industries managed five.
Hybrids have helped Maruti acquire leadership in SUVs, a segment that was never its forte. Toyota has also risen with the hybrid tide to clock its highest-ever annual sales in 2023.
India may see a structural shift in supplies of crude oil with Russia emerging as a key source of fuels, a development that reduces New Delhi's dependence on West Asian oil, gives Indian refiners better bargaining power with price-setter Saudi Arabia, and improves overall energy security. The unexpected surge in supplies of Russian crude in the last few months, unthinkable until the war in Ukraine, may also deliver other unforeseen gains such as boosting exports of refined fuels to Europe, which historically has counted on Russian shipments. India has jumped on to the bandwagon of opportunistic buying of Russian crude but if calibrated carefully, Urals crude can be a long-term asset for India refiners.
The ministry was expecting savings this year to be around Rs 20,000 crore.
An increase in petrol, diesel, domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene prices looks "imminent" after the Finance Ministry said it has no money to provide for fuel subsidy.
The government was planning to come up with a new fiscal model giving 'special incentives' for fields that were given out on nomination to ONGC and Oil India, reports Shine Jacob.
'Modi is trying avenues to convince people why they should vote for the BJP.'
As fuel prices surged in September, the government's decision to ask companies to cut price by Rs1 each on a litre of petrol and diesel came as a dampner for private players.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) on Tuesday hiked petrol prices by about Rs 2.96 a litre effective midnight tonight, and other state-owned oil companies IOC and HPCL will follow suit on Wednesday.
The Union oil ministry is considering a proposal to adopt differential pricing for diesel, under which industrial users like power utilities, will be charged market prices and retail consumers continue to be subsidised.
OVL had bid for two of the 10 shallow-water blocks that Myanmar had auctioned in December but drew a blank when the fields were awarded on March 26.
The petroleum ministry has said that fuel prices should go up by Rs 10.43 a litre and cooking gas price by Rs 114.45 per cylinder, with the Left parties opposing the move.
The bonds will help oil marketing companies - IOC, HPCl, Bharat Petroleum and IBP Ltd - to cover their under-recoveries.
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 oil and gas fields have seen output further dipping to 44.5 million standard cubic metres per day this month.
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.
A market-based gas pricing regime is to kick-in from next month.
India's exports rose marginally by 1.62 per cent to $33.92 billion, while trade deficit more than doubled to $27.98 billion in August due to increased crude oil imports, commerce ministry data said on Wednesday. The revised data showed that imports rose by 37.28 per cent to $61.9 billion in August this year. The preliminary data released by the ministry on September 3 had shown a 1.15 per cent decline in exports to $33 billion in August.
As on December 31, government stake in IndianOil stood at 78.92 per cent.
