As the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, India is running out of options as the relentless surge in international oil prices make it imperative to pass them on to consumers, officials said on Monday. India imports 85 per cent of its crude oil needs and about half of its natural gas requirement. While the imported crude oil is turned into fuels such as petrol and diesel, gas is used as CNG in automobiles and fuel in factories.
The shifting of S Jaipal Reddy from the petroleum ministry and elevation of Salman Khurshid on Monday kicked up a political storm with parties suspecting the government of coming under corporate pressure and accusing it of promoting those facing corruption charges.
Bajaj Auto has launched a new range of passenger three-wheelers, with improved mileage, changed styling and lower maintenance costs.
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.
The ministry is in consultation with various other stakeholders and ministries on this and the department of financial services was working on the proposal.
According to data compiled by BS Research Bureau for BSE 100 companies, seven public sector companies -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), Bank of India, Union Bank, Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and GAIL -- have reduced their employee costs ranging from one per cent to 21 per cent.
With the government making a distinction between the privately-run Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and the government-run NTPC Ltd in relation with the gas dispute with Reliance Industries Ltd, the ministry of power is likely to take up NTPC's case with the Empowered Group of Ministers.
The government will take home Rs 4,022 crore (Rs 40.22 billion) by way of interim dividend bonanza declared by the state-owned oil companies in the last one week.
Oil regulator PNGRB has approved the tariff that billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned East-West pipeline will charge for transporting gas from fields off the east coast to users.
Top government officials in New Delhi have started discussions with stakeholders ranging from shipping and container companies to export promotion councils to understand the impact of the Iran-Israel tensions and plan ahead. Inter-ministerial talks are also being lined up amid the crisis situation in West Asia, sources confirmed. While the crude flows are not directly under any threat, elevated oil prices remain a concern, according to officials.
Minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said the finance ministry is yet to approve the oil bonds. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum lost Rs 11,853 crore (Rs 118.53 billion) in revenues on not being allowed to raise LPG and kerosene prices in line with the cost during April- September.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh owes an explanation to citizens on why Jaipal Reddy was shifted as minister of petroleum and natural gas.
The move is likely to force the government to take a faster decision.
Contraction in crude oil, natural gas, coal and electricity output led to the fall.
Three petroleum teams -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) -- all boasting experienced Indian stars in their ranks, start as favourites in the Development Credit Bank Aga Khan hockey tournament, which commences at the Bombay Gymkhana on Sunday, May 15. The final is on May 21.
IOC has asked consumers to book LPG refill through IVRS or SMSes so that refills reach genuine users.
The wholesale price-based inflation bucked the 4-month rising trend in December 2021, and eased to 13.56 per cent, mainly on account of softening in fuel, power and manufacturing items even though food prices hardened. WPI inflation has remained in double digits for the ninth consecutive month beginning April. Inflation in November was 14.23 per cent, while in December 2020 it was 1.95 per cent.
Eight companies including Reliance Gas Ltd, GAIL Gas and the joint venture of Indian Oil and Adani Energy have bid for the rights to retail CNG in seven cities.
Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Natural Resources has filed an affidavit in the Bombay High Court in the case involving Reliance Industries, refuting the petroleum ministry's stand that the government-approved price of $4.2/million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu) is the selling price of gas.
India has emerged as the world's biggest cylinder-based liquefied petroleum gas user with the customer base crossing 7 crore (70 million mark), Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said.
Russia has welcomed India's decision to not support the price cap on Russian oil announced by G7 and its allies and offered it cooperation on leasing and building large-capacity ships to overcome the ban on insurance services and tanker chartering in the European Union and Britain to continue buying discounted oil. The offer came as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak held a meeting with the Indian Ambassador to Moscow, Pavan Kapoor, on Friday. "The Deputy Prime Minister welcomed India's decision not to support the price cap on Russian oil, which was imposed on December 5 by the G7 countries and their allies," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Budget left out 'energy security'. The only item pertaining to petroleum is the addition of section 80-IB(9) withdrawing 'petroleum & natural gas' from the definition of 'mineral oil', thus affecting tax concessions for the exploration of petroleum. Moreover, the cut in excise on automobiles means more vehicles on the road & increased crude oil imports. World oil production peaking will therefore occur soon, which will keep oil prices at a high & seriously affect economy.
The Turkmenistan event underscores the lengths to which China's oil-and-gas companies will go to curry favour in resource-rich locales.
The output was behind target in 2015-16 as well and the government is yet to issue a cost disallowance notice for that
Compressed natural gas is currently available as auto fuel in 30 cities. "CNG-run vehicles have risen by nearly 200,000 in past one year to 650,000," Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board chairman L Mansingh said at the NGV India 2009 conference in New Delhi.
Oil regulator PNGRB on Monday approved the tariff that Mukesh Ambani-owned East-West pipeline will charge for transporting gas from Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 fields to users.
The Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas in its report tabled in Parliament today asked the ministry to strictly monitor implementation of directions issued to RIL for reversing the trend of falling gas output from the Bay of Bengal field.
Taking suo moto cognisance of reports of the Centre's move -- ahead of Gujarat assembly polls -- to increase the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders, the Election Commission has directed it to stop the same forthwith. The Commission held an emergency meeting soon after the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily said the government will raise the cap on the supply of subsidised cooking gas to nine cylinders per household a year from six at present.
Though the international crude prices were going up, the United Progressive Alliance government's approach was that the subsidy on petroleum products should continue as in the case of food and fertilisers.
Jaipal Reddy, who has been given the science and technology ministry, is deeply upset by his transfer from the petroleum and natural gas ministry and did not come to handover charge to new minister Veerappa Moily.
The government has sought to increase crude oil inflow from Saudi Arabia by five million tonnes from 27.33 million tonnes, as supplies from Iran is set to decline following US sanctions.
The government has cut windfall gains tax on domestically-produced crude oil to nil while continuing the rate at zero on the export of diesel and ATF. The government has slashed the special additional excise duty (SAED) on crude oil produced by companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to nil from Rs 4,100 per tonne with effect from Tuesday, an official order dated May 15 said. This is the second time that the levy, which was introduced in July last year in the form of a cess to tax supernormal gains of oil producers and fuel exporters, has been cut to nil for domestically-produced oil.
The wholesale price-based inflation spiked to 12.54 per cent in October, mainly due to rise in prices of manufactured products and crude petroleum. WPI inflation has remained in double digit for the seventh consecutive month beginning April. Inflation in September this year was at 10.66 per cent, while in October 2020 it was at 1.31 per cent.
Among the documents that Arvind Kejriwal handed out in his press conference on Wednesday, was a page from the letter from the former minister of petroleum and natural gas, S Jaipal Reddy, and marked as annexure 5, to Reliance Industries about its KG Basin oil extraction
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