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.
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.
The government has cut the windfall profit tax on crude oil produced in the country while the levy on exports of diesel and ATF has been hiked, an official notification said. The tax, levied in the form of special additional excise duty or SAED, on domestically produced crude oil was reduced to Rs 6,700 per tonne from Rs 7,100 a tonne. SAED on the export of diesel was increased to Rs 6 per litre from Rs 5.50 a litre and on jet fuel or ATF to Rs 4 per litre from Rs 2, the notification said.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
IOC has asked consumers to book LPG refill through IVRS or SMSes so that refills reach genuine users.
The Turkmenistan event underscores the lengths to which China's oil-and-gas companies will go to curry favour in resource-rich locales.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 wholesale price-based inflation in February rose to 13.11 per cent on hardening of prices of crude oil and non-food items, even though food articles softened. After two months of mild easing, WPI inflation accelerated in February and remained in double digits for the 11th consecutive month, beginning April 2021. WPI inflation last month was 12.96 per cent, while in February last year, it was 4.83 per cent. The rise in crude oil and natural gas prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, beginning February 24, has put pressure on the wholesale price index, even though food articles saw softening across categories of vegetables to pulses to protein-rich items.
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.
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 directed state-run fuel retailers Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum to clear the wait list for domestic LPG connection within the next two months.
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
The government on Wednesday ruled out privatisation of Indian Oil, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Gas Authority of India Ltd and assured all security concerns would be taken care of while divesting public sector oil
Ministry returns guarantee saying new price has not been notified and RIL would have to submit surety as and when it is announced.
RIL will initially start gas production from eight wells, with an initial output likely to be 5 mmscmd (million standard cubic metres) per day. Bombay high court had last week allowed Reliance to sell gas from KG-D6 at $4.20 per million British thermal units in accordance with the government's gas utilisation policy, which gives priority to fertiliser units followed by existing power plants.
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will visit Pakistan from June 3 to boost energy ties and discuss the $4.16 billion Iran-India gas pipeline project.\n\n
The current retail selling price of Rs 65.64 per litre in Delhi is short of actual cost by Rs 8.60 a litre.
The ministry has asked the oil marketing companies to further step up their efforts to curb adulteration of petroleum products.
A parliamentary panel has asked the government to restrict imports of all petroleum products especially transportation fuels (petrol and diesel) by private firms in view of the excess refining capacity in the country.
Reliance Natural Resources Ltd has questioned oil ministry's right to approve the price at which a producer sells gas to customers, saying its nod was needed only for the formula or basis of pricing of gas for computing government's share.
