The company had initially objected to audit by CAG for time barred years as per Production Sharing Contract and had not accepted the 'exceptional circumstances' advanced by the ministry
State-run gas utility GAIL India may take a stake in the $1.95-billion gas pipeline that China is building for ferrying natural gas found off the Myanmar coast.
Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Friday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and tied a rakhi on his wrist.
The auditor said that it has unfettered right of access to all records of Reliance Industries (RIL) during its audit of operations in the Krishna-Godavari basin and would override any conditions sought to be imposed on the process.
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.
The gvernment said on Tuesday that contingency plans have been drawn to maintain continuous supply of petroleum products if the employees of privatisation bound Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd go on strike.\n\n\n\n
The government on Wednesday said there was no proposal to either merge Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum with Oil and Natural Gas Corp or Oil India Ltd with Indian Oil Corporation.
"There is no immediate plan to decontrol diesel or LPG as they have cascading effect (on general prices)," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
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 combined debt of Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum has risen to Rs 115,000 crore (Rs 1,150 billion) as they borrowed to make up for revenue losses on fuel sales during the first half of the current fiscal.
There are about 23 oil refineries in India with a combined capacity of 230 million tonnes per annum.
The GST Council might on Friday consider taxing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products under the single national GST regime, a move that may require huge compromises by both central and state governments on the revenues they collect from taxing these products. The Council, which comprises central and state finance ministers, in its meeting scheduled in Lucknow on Friday, is also likely to consider extending the time for duty relief on COVID-19 essentials, according to sources in the know of the development. GST is being thought to be a solution for the problem of near-record high petrol and diesel rates in the country, as it would end the cascading effect of tax on tax (state VAT being levied not just on the cost of production but also on the excise duty charged by the Centre on such output).
The 'failure' to drill the committed 50 wells on the KG-D6 fields led to natural gas output dramatically falling over the past three years.
Capital expenditure by 54 large central public sector enterprises and five departmental arms, having a capex minimum target of Rs 100 crore, rose 93 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in the April-May period to Rs 1.39 trillion. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Railways have started this financial year's capex cycle on a stronger note. In the first two months of FY24, the 54 CPSEs, along with the departmental arms, achieved 19 per cent of their combined budget target of Rs 7.33 trillion, Business Standard has learnt.
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.
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.
The petroleum ministry has projected a strong year for the oil marketing companies though the largest exploration company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, is projected to post a moderate gain in its bottomline.
The government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Cairn India's partner in the Barmer block in Rajasthan, is closely scrutinising the stake sale in Cairn India by Cairn Energy.
'The price increases, particularly in respect of cooking gas, that is domestic LPG and PDS kerosene, have been quite minimal.'
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 Appellate Tribunal for Electricity has admitted the OMCs' plea challenging the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board's power to adjudicate on the matter.
RIL estimates output from KG-D6 could reach up to 60 mscmd in the next five years, when all satellite fields are brought into production.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, overseas investment arm of the state-run explorer, teamed up with Oil India Ltd and Turkish Petroleum Corporation to bid for the Halfaya oilfield in Iraq's second post-war bid round on Friday.
Russia's Gazprom or Rosneft may also join ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of the state-run explorer, in Iraq's second post-war bid round on December 11-12, industry sources said.
A Group of Ministers will take the decision in June.
Pakistan pitched for India importing natural gas from Iran through a pipeline passing through its territory saying it will do everything possible to ensure safe delivery of gas from the onland pipeline
Iran on Tuesday denied existence of any contract for export of liquefied natural gas to India while stating that it cannot wait endlessly for New Delhi to join the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
The Tihar jail authorities expect the network, which will carry gas to jail kitchens, to be laid out by April and this will cost about Rs 60 lakh, Director General (Prisons) B K Gupta told reporters. "LPG cylinders are widely used by prisoners during riots in jails and we want to avoid such incidents," he said. During the January 7 jail riots in a Jalandhar prison, the inmates threw LPG cylinders into the fire but luckily, these did not explode.
ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd will buy Videocon Industries' 10 per cent stake in a giant Mozambique gas field for $2.475 billion.
The union government is planning to release about 5.5 crore new LPG connections over the next five years, petroleum and natural gas minister Murli Deora said.
Minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said that IOC and MRPL have been allocated 0.20 million tonnes each in 2009-10, while HPCL would offtake 0.30 million tonnes of Rajasthan crude. In 2010-11, IOC would buy 1.5 million tonnes of the crude oil from the nation's most prolific oil discovery in more than two decades, while MRPL would double its offtake to 0.40 million tonnes.
