Iran may put the $22 billion deal to sell liquefied natural gas to India on the backburner as New Delhi refuses to re-open the contract sealed two years ago, according to an assessment by the petroleum ministry.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora would visit Pakistan early next month to sort out differences over transit fee for the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
Petrol dealers called off the strike planned for Friday to protest against government not passing off the benefits of drop in prices of petroleum.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will meet Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and chiefs of airlines and oil companies to discuss a solution for dues of over Rs 2,000 crore that the domestic carriers owe the state-owned oil marketers on fuel sales.
Government will hold consultations with leaders of the left parties, allies of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, on the issue of petroleum product prices even as Petroleum minister Murli Deora disfavoured increasing LPG and kerosene prices.
GoM meeting regarding petro product price hike has been postponed and a decision on the prices will come only after Jan 28.
A price reduction may be considered if crude oil falls to $61 per barrel, he said. The basket of crude oil India buys was at this year's lowest of $68.81 per barrel. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are currently losing about Rs 280 crore (Rs 2.8 billion) per day on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene as government has not allowed them to align retail prices with cost of production.
The three government oil marketing companies, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, are losing Rs 320 crore a day as they sell at subsidised rates.
With volatile international oil prices costing the country $43 billion in import bill, energy-hungry India has called for forging enduring partnerships between oil producing and consuming countries to contain the effect of surging oil prices.
Unless the per barrel prices comes down to $67 level, the reduction in existing fuel prices, including petrol, diesel and LPG, should not be expected, Deora said while replying a volley of questions on whether the government would take a populist measure or reducing oil prices despite losses to oil marketing companies. Meanwhile, global crude oil prices today fell $10.52 at $96.37 per barrel in New York's main contract for November delivery.
Participants included members of the House Caucus on India and Indian Americans.
Oil Minister Murli Deora has said that petrol and diesel prices would not be cut till crude oil prices fell to $67 a barrel, since the depreciation in the rupee against the US dollar had eroded gains from falling oil prices, which touched a 7-month low.
India-born billionaire Lakshmi N Mittal will invest Rs 3,200 crore (Rs 32 billion) in taking 49 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd's $3 billion Bhatinda refinery.
Crude prices are hovering near $100 a barrel level after hitting a six-month low of $98 on Thursday. Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey said that crude prices are expected to fall even further.
The United Progressive Alliance government on Thursday announced slashing petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2 and Re 1 per litre, respectively, with effect from midnight on Thursday -- as part of measures to tame soaring inflation.
India hopes to conclude the acquisition of UK-listed Imperial Energy in 4-5 weeks, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Friday. OVL is now awaiting approval of Kremlin to takeover the company, which has assets in Tomsk region of the western Siberia in Russia.
The petroleum ministry's call for an immediate Re 1 cut in excise duty on diesel has been rejected by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Global crude oil prices have nearly doubled in the last one year but government has not raised domestic fuel prices on a direction from United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Tuesday sought a Re 1 per litre cut in excise duty on diesel to contain runaway inflation.
The country is facing no shortage of domestic cooking gas at the moment, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. As on October 1, 2007, OMCs were serving 9.79 crore LPG customers through their 9,355 distributorships. OMCs have released 27.7 lakh new LPG domestic connections in the country during April-September.
Indian Oil Corporation wants to set up a petrochemical plant in Yemen provided it is allocated a gasfield, a senior company official said on Friday.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Friday said the government would wait for international crude prices to stabilise before announcing any cuts in domestic petrol and diesel prices.
The government has no plans to raise fuel prices in the immediate future and will take a decision in this regard at an "appropriate time", Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Tuesday. "An appropriate decision on fuel price will be taken at an appropriate time," Deora said at the Economic Editors' Conference in New Delhi.
Crude oil prices have fallen to below $113 a barrel this week from all-time high of $147 per barrel witnessed last month. The basket of crude oil India buys averaged $109.88 per barrel, down from $119 a barrel price on June 4 when petrol, diesel and domestic cooking gas prices were raised.
With the rise of global crude oil prices - currently nudging $100 per barrel - the "losses" of the three government-owned oil marketing companies have gone up to a whopping Rs 240 crore (Rs 2.4 billion) per day.
The woman made her threat as the minister ended answering questions on his recent visit to China along with senior officials of his ministry, ONGC and other agencies.
The government on Thursday decided not to increase petrol and diesel prices, and issue oil bonds worth Rs 23,457 crore (Rs 234.57 billion) to partly compensate public sector oil companies for the losses incurred on fuel sales."We have kept our promise of not raising prices of sensitive petroleum products," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told PTI after a meeting of the Cabinet.
The price of the Indian basket of crude oil touched an all-time high of $75.30 per barrel on Thursday, the latest day for which data are available, sending alarm bells ringing in the government.
The average price of Indian basket of crude oil during 2007-08 (upto August) has increased to $68.34 per barrel as compared to 62.46 dollars a barrel during 2006-07.
The strike had threatened to cripple aviation refuelling and refinery operations, oil and gas production and auto fuel as well as domestic cooking gas supplies.
The government on Wednesday launched a new marker system to detect adulteration of kerosene in petrol and diesel.\n\n
He sought oil bonds from the finance ministry to cover 57.1 per cent of the total Rs 77,000 crore losses suffered by the oil companies in 2007-08.
Mittal said his steel plants were getting gas at no less than $6 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), much lower than the $4.33 per mBtu price proposed by RIL.
Officers of state-owned oil companies, who late last night deferred their proposed indefinite strike by three weeks, on Tuesday dropped the strike plan completely after a meeting with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora is likely to meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram later this week to seek greater compensation for oil companies, who are currently losing about Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) a day on fuel sales. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are likely to see doubling of revenue loss on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene to Rs 150,000 crore. The three fuel retailers together lost Rs 77,304.50 cr on fuel sale in 2007-08.
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