Italian oil tanker Enrica Lexie, detained off Kerala coast since February 15 after its Marines shot dead two Indian fishermen, on Saturday sailed off from Kochi for Colombo after completion of all legal formalities, including execution of a bond for Rs 3 crore.
Singh said India has intensified patrolling of the seas after the recent attacks on merchant navy ships.
The tankers carrying fuel from terminals to dealer outlets would not just have global positioning system (GPS) tracking but also an electronic key (e-key).
"It was a nightmare," said Hari C Nair, one of the 17 Indian sailors released by Somalian pirates after spending 11 months in captivity, recalled on Wednesday.
The Indian Navy, which regards itself as the 'net security provider' in the Indian Ocean Region, has also stepped up to the plate, with a warship stationed at all times off the Gulf of Aden for counter-piracy tasks. 91 Indian warships have been deployed in the region since 2008, patrolling high risk areas where piracy was rampant.
Tehran plans to lift exports by 500,000 barrels per day
Hundreds of Kashmir-bound stranded vehicles were given green signal on Tuesday afternoon after the roads were cleared for vehicular traffic.
India will need to travel back in time and seek inspiration from football greats Tulsidas Balaram and Chuni Goswami to deftly dribble around and sidestep the West-imposed price cap on exports of Russian seaborne crude oil. India depends on imported oil to meet 86 per cent of its needs, of which nearly a quarter now comes from Russia. The copious flows are roughly 10 per cent cheaper than competing suppliers helping India save billions of dollars in fuel costs.
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.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah about the fire and sought assistance for dousing it, an official said.
India also went on an overdrive in expanding its military engagement with like-minded countries in its neighbourhood and beyond in the face of China's relentless attempts to become a regional hegemon and establish its primacy in South Asia.
India's Iran imports rise to 276,800 bpd vs 195,600 bpd in 2013.
India plans to further cut imports from Iran by 13 per cent next fiscal even though easing of US and western sanctions has made buying crude oil from the Persian Gulf nation easier.
Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan said the vessel had more than 32,000 tonne of oil and has been emptied.
A Dornier aircraft of the Coast Guard, which flew over the area on Wednesday morning, found a 'thin oil sheen only 300 metres wide.
India is building its oil reserves in underground rock caverns and tanks
"We will be guided by our national interest," he said.
India's imports from Iran rose to 250,200 barrels per day
India has asked refiners that owe about $6.5 billion to Iran for oil imports to build up dollar and euro balances to avoid downward pressure on the rupee if six world powers and Tehran reach a final nuclear deal.
US sanctions against Iran kick in from November 4, which will block payment routes. Sources said India and Iran are discussing reverting to rupee trade after November 4.
Italy has criticised India's handling of the case of two of its marines accused of killing two Indian fisherman as "contradictory" and "disconcerting" ahead of a hearing of the case in India's Supreme Court.
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.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday spoke to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and sought a "rapid and positive solution" in the case of the two Italian marines being held in India for allegedly shooting to death two Indian fishermen in 2012.
According to industry figures, the pre-Covid demand for liquid medical oxygen (LMO) before the pandemic was 700 tonnes per day across the country. Now, with the second wave, the demand has gone up more than seven times, reports Jyoti Mukul.
The Italian government will see if one of the two marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen in 2012 is fit enough to return to India, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has said.
Indian Oil Corporation's Raxaul depot resumed supplies after the obstruction by protesters was removed from the main 'Maitreyi' (Friendship) Bridge connecting the two countries.
The high court directed the central government counsel to file a statement in response to the plea and listed the matter for hearing after two weeks.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has said the trial of two marines in India over the killing of two Indian fishermen has run into new "difficulty" because of upcoming general elections in that country.
The South Korean appeal court overturned a lower court ruling and found the super tanker Hebei Spirit and its officers partly to blame for the oil spill in December last year, which polluted miles and miles of beaches. The ship's owner was fined $21,000.
"Italy is willing to try the marines at home, but in the meantime we ask for their freedom," said Interior Minister Angelino Alfano was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency.
India accused the two Italian marines on board the MV Enrica Lexie, an Italian flagged oil tanker, of shooting dead two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast on February 15, 2012.
Soaring fuel prices give birth to a jugaad system in Bihar's border towns abutting Nepal with residents smuggling in India-supplied cheaper petrol and diesel from the mountain kingdom.
Fourteen Indians aboard cruise vessel MSV Sri Krishna Sagar, which sank in international waters off Iraq on December 27, are feared dead, according to sources.
Benchmark Brent oil futures prices more than halved between June 2014 and January 2015.
French naval commander expresses concern over China expanding its maritime influence in the region.
The price of diesel sold to bulk users has been hiked by about Rs 25 per litre in line with a near 40 per cent rise in international oil prices, but retail rates at petrol pumps remain unchanged, sources said. Petrol pump sales have jumped by a fifth this month after bulk users like bus fleet operators and malls queued up at petrol bunks to buy fuel rather than the usual practice of ordering directly from oil companies, widening the losses of retailers. Worst hit are private retailers like Nayara Energy, Jio-bp and Shell, who have so far refused to curtail any volume despite a surge in sales.
Nigerian militants on Wednesday released an Indian and five other crew members of a chemical tanker, who were abducted more than two weeks ago off the restive oil-rich Niger Delta region.
IOC has been forced to shut down its Digboi refinery in Assam and is operating Guwahati unit at minimal throughput, while OIL has been forced to shut LPG production and its crude oil production has dropped by 15-20%. Sources said the agitation has blocked the movement of tankers and trucks, which are mostly used to supply petrol, diesel and LPG from the refineries to different parts of the North East.
Italy has regretted that the case of two of its marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen should have been resolved in the first three days of the incident, before the issue became enmeshed in India's "deadly judicial and political-electoral gears".
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