Why does the world's fastest-growing major consumer of energy fail to attract investments in oil and gas? This is a question worth pondering after private sector conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) failed to close a $15-billion downstream asset deal with Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Aramco. It's understandable if multi-billion dollar investments in oil and gas projects or deals involving state companies that need to traverse a complex bureaucracy at state and federal levels and the corridors of ministries unravel. However, Mukesh Ambani-run RIL, India's most successful energy company, is not typically known to fumble on closing deals (Ambani closed deals worth around Rs 2 trillion early last year in telecom and retail with blue chip investors).
Govt hopes to add 0.21 mn Mw capacity by 2022, against 0.25 mn Mw added over 60 years.
A looming global shortage of diesel in Europe presents India with more than one opportunity to profit from strong margins. A shortage of the fuel, a key contributor to inflation, has been exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, and western sanctions on Russian fuel supplies. The slowdown in natural gas supply means the West needs diesel to heat their homes this winter.
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Following adverse media reaction to the June 27 decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the finance ministry had issued an office memorandum asking the petroleum ministry to see if there was a way to make RIL clear its gas supply backlog at the existing price.
Petrol and diesel prices are likely to be hiked this week as oil companies prepare to pare losses accumulated from keeping rates steady for over four months in the run-up to assembly elections in five states, including UP, despite international oil prices jumping to a 13-year high of $140 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the US oil benchmark, rose to $130.50 per barrel on Sunday evening, its highest since July 2008, before retreating. The international benchmark, Brent crude, hit a high of $139.13 at one point overnight, also its highest since July 2008.
Gautam Adani had in the late 1970s applied to join a Mumbai college for education, but the college rejected his application. He did not pursue education but turned to business and went on to build a $220 billion empire. About four-and-a-half decades later, he gets called to the same college to deliver a lecture to students on Teachers Day. Adani had moved to Mumbai at the age of 16 and started working as a diamond sorter.
Lower crude oil costs and higher marketing margins are expected to raise the fortunes of oil marketing companies (OMCs) in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023-24 (FY24), while city gas distribution (CGD) companies could also benefit from lower spot prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, in a break from the past, growth trends are expected to diverge for various segments within the broad energy sector. Analysts expect the earnings from gas production to go down for upstream national oil and gas companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) due to the introduction of the new domestic gas pricing regime on April 1. After showing steep losses over the first half of 2022-23 (FY23), the marketing margins of OMCs have steadily recovered in four months.
Energy supermajor Exxon Mobil Corp is in talks to buy a stake in producing oil and gas fields in India, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday showcasing efforts to raise domestic output to cut imports. Exxon Mobil had in October last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to offer its expertise and technology for developing resources in offshore blocks.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the Delhi government's decision to probe the Centre's policy on gas pricing was a "peculiar" and "absurd" situation.
Some hospitals in the national capital appealed to authorities on Tuesday to replenish their oxygen stocks, saying their patients' lives were at stake owing to erratic supplies.
Pooling will also kick-start projects of Reliance Power, Torrent, Lanco.
The plant has been shut since 2013 for want of domestic gas supplies.
Here are other gas leaks that made headlines in the last few years:
India's cities must switch over to piped gas leaving LPG cylinders.
Lieutenant Commanders Dilna K and Roopa A will remain at sea for 8 months. They will rely on wind power, do the repairs on the boat themselves and navigate some the world's most treacherous waters.
Three years after India declared its goal to become a net-zero economy by 2070, the policy design for achieving the target has begun, with the NITI Aayog forming dedicated multi-sectoral committees to prepare a transition plan. In 2021, India joined a select group of nations that set a target year for becoming net-zero carbon economy. At COP26 in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined a five-pronged 'Panchamitra' climate action target for India and committed to a net-zero target by 2070, joining nations like the US, the UK, and China.
Dhami said several acres of land were freed from encroachment during the demolition drive in the 'Malik Ka Bagicha' area of Banbhoolpura.
Commuters in Mumbai are having a hard time on Tuesday as the supply of Compressed Natural Gas in the city was hit after a service pipeline was badly damaged.
Petrol pumps in many cities witnessed long queues on Tuesday as people came to fill up their vehicle tanks fearing shortage of fuel amid the protest by truck drivers against a provision in the new penal law on hit-and-run accident cases involving motorists.
Now that the Bombay High Court has rejected the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas' (MoPNG) attempts to help Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) wriggle out of its 2005 contract to supply 28 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNRL), the pressure on it has increased several times over.
The latest flashpoint in West Asia has derailed India's preliminary plans to resume crude oil imports from Iran, officials said. In January, officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had told Business Standard that the government had been studying proposals for the same, given that India was trying to expand sources of imports. "We are always monitoring the situation when it comes to crude flows.
Saturday's Quad meeting in Delaware is taking place against the backdrop of China's assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, its sabre-rattling in the Taiwan Strait and increasing footprints in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, asserts Rup Narayan Das.
'2019 was fought on delivery. But in 2024, you can see the before and after effects.'
The 1,967 MW plant has not been operating since August because of stoppage of natural gas supplies from domestic fields.
A swift recovery in oil demand in India is not only helping the stability of the global market, it is giving huge fiscal headroom to the government in terms of additional excise duty.
BP, which bought a 30 per cent stake in RIL's 21 oil and gas blocks, including KG-D6, for $7.026 billion in 2011, is working with RIL to arrest the output decline in the fields.
The three state-owned fuel retailers have been "directed to stop supplies of LPG refills to households having multiple- connections for which no KYC (Know Your Customer) details have been received, with effect from June 1," a statement issued by Indian Oil Corporation, the nation's largest oil firm, said.
India is the world's fourth-largest importer of natural gas, accounting for six per cent of the global market.
Rescue operations were underway on Friday to trace over 45 people missing following flash floods triggered by cloudbursts in three districts of Himachal Pradesh, officials said on Friday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday expressed concern over the mismatch in demand and supply in the energy sector.
The $200 million Spic Fertilizers and Chemicals project at the Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai will go on stream in about a year as soon as gas supply to fire the facility is firmed up, the company's Chairman A C Muthiah has said.
The Petroleum Ministry in an order on Wednesday said it has revised guidelines for allocation/supply of domestic natural gas to city gas distribution entities for CNG and piped cooking gas sector.
Qatar has agreed to supply 1.2 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas to fire the Dabhol power plant in Maharashtra, but differences persist over the price.
Average monthly GST collection rose from Rs 90,000 crore during the first year of its implementation -- 2017-2018 -- to Rs 1.68 trillion during 2023-2024, representing an 87 per cent rise.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the operator of the KG-D6 gas block, has told the government it cannot comply with its latest directive on prioritising gas supply.
The laying of gas pipeline to feed the 2,150-Mw Dabhol power plant owned by Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Ltd has been delayed again.
About 2,000 petrol pumps, mostly in western and northern India, have run out of fuel stocks as the strike by some truckers' associations entered the second day on Tuesday.
CNG price in the national capital and adjoining cities on Tuesday was hiked by Rs 0.50 per kg, while an imminent increase in petrol and diesel price has been put on wait-and-watch mode for more clarity on global oil prices. CNG price in NCT of Delhi has been increased to Rs 57.51 per kg from Rs 56.51, according to the information posted on the website of Indraprastha Gas Ltd - the firm which retails CNG and piped cooking gas in the national capital. Following the firming up of international gas rates, IGL has been raising CNG rates by up to 50 paise (Rs 0.50) per kg periodically. Prices have gone up by about Rs 4 per kg this year alone.
The govt is mulling the need to exercise its rights under the gas production-sharing contracts.
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