The dollar devaluation has seen revenue loss incurred by state-run oil firms on fuel sales trimming to about Rs 96 crore per day.
In the midst of a war of words between the two countries, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday expressed his desire to meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.The Chinese leader's remarks come a day after Beijing raked up its claim over Arunachal Pradesh, questioning Prime Minister Singh's visit there on October 3. India hit back on Wednesday, reacting strongly to Chinese plans to get involved in projects in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
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.
State-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL are likely to lose Rs 65,000 crore on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost during the current fiscal, Oil Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.
Talks between the government and striking oil Public Sector Undertakings failed late Thursday night over the officers' insistence on getting an immediate hike in their wages as the agitation threatened a major disruption in supply of petrol across the country. Deora is likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday afternoon on the issue after the meeting of the Union cabinet in the morning.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are not on talking terms with expelled leader Jaswant Singh after he refused to resign from the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament, Union minister Murli Deora claimed on Friday. The Petroleum and Natural Gas minister, who is heading a high-level delegation to London, said senior BJP leaders, including L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Murali Manohar Joshi, are not on talking terms with their former colleague.
Petrol is currently sold at a loss of Rs 6.68 per litre and diesel at Rs 5.81 per litre. Naik said the Vajpayee government had given Navratna oil firms the freedom to decide fuel prices.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Monday launched the service, which will be initially available in the national capital and would be extended to other metropolitan cities, state capitals and towns.
The Petroleum Ministry has allocated additional natural gas from Reliance Industries' eastern offshore gas fields to three power plants to meet electricity deficit in northern states reeling under drought.
Had the government intervened at the right time, the controversy over an MoU that provides for dividing a national resource, would not have arisen, he said.
Lok Sabha MP Harsh Vardhan on July 23 wrote to Petroleum Minister Murli Deora asking why the government had kept quiet for all this while on the Ambani family MoU that provides for dividing Krishna-Godavari basin gas between companies run by brothers Mukesh and Anil.
With terrorists using the sea route to unleash the deadliest attack on India in 15 years, an alarm has been sounded on security of oil and gas installations, particularly offshore areas, with companies offering to bear part of the cost of enhanced surveillance and patrolling.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has constituted a ministers' group to monitor the government's stand on the Ambani gas dispute in the Supreme Court.
Deora is believed to have explained the oil ministry's position on gas pricing and utilisation.
The Election Commission on Wednesday issued notice to Petroleum Minister Murli Deora for his remarks on effecting a fuel price cut after the conclusion of assembly elections next month. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had approached Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami over the issue contending that the announcement amounted to violation of the Model Code of Conduct enforced by the commission.
Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources continued its attack on the government for allegedly favouring brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on the sale price of gas from the Krishna Godavari D6 basin. At $4.2 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), the price fixed, there is a premium of more than 100 per cent over the gas available through the administered pricing mechanism, it said.
A friend of Mukesh Ambani should not be petroleum minister
Asserting that it had no role in the Ambani family dispute, the government on Monday declared in Parliament that it will do everything to protect its legal right to regulate usage of gas.
Amidst the legal battle between Reliance Industries Ltd and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd over gas from Kaveri basin, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora has hit out at the Ambani brothers for fighting over a natural resource that belongs to the government and the people of the country.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday in an effort to secure energy assets, including UK-listed Imperial Energy Plc.
The government will next week launch the 9th round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy for the oil and gas sector.
"They (prices of petroleum products) should be linked to world prices," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told PTI when asked about the global crude prices now surging to about $70 a barrel.
Deregulating petrol and diesel prices has been on the cards since the crude oil prices came down by $100 from the historic high of $147 a barrel, a few weeks back. But with the rates climbing again, doubts are being cast if prices can actually be freed. Crude oil prices are ruling at $71-72 a barrel, a seven-month high.
Deora, who met Mukherjee on Monday afternoon to present his ministry's Budget wishlist, also discussed the deregulation of fuel prices.
The finance minister as part of his pre-Budget consultations is meeting industry bodies and ministers and has slotted Deora for June 15, a source said. On Deora's agenda will be getting back the seven-year exemption or holiday from payment of income tax for natural gas producers. He may also press for infrastructure status for natural gas.
Sudan, which had in 2007 defaulted on payment of installments towards the cost of building 741-km pipeline from Khatroum to Port au Sudan, agreed to form a working group to resolve the issue within a month, sources said.
India has put in place a multi-pronged strategy, including faster exploration and acquisition of oil fields abroad, to secure energy at affordable rates, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said.
Availability of natural gas, including imported LNG, is likely to increase in the country by over 52 per cent to 271.92 million cubic meters a day by 2013-14, Oil Minister Murli Deora said on Thursday.
Contrary to reports, oil PSUs will not make a counter bid to Vedanta Resources' $9.6 billion offer to buy Cairn India, as the oil ministry is disinclined to a rival bid.
The finance ministry has offered less than half of the Rs 31,700 crore (Rs 317 billion) sought by the oil ministry to make up for revenue losses incurred by the state-owned retailers on sale of LPG and kerosene. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Thursday met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to seek compensation for the public sector oil firms for their losses but the meeting remained inconclusive.
Though the government had earlier this year explicitly decided to compensate Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum for the losses they incur on selling domestic liquid petroleum gas and kerosene through public distribution system by way of oil bonds, the finance ministry has not issued any bonds for the three quarters.
India on Thursday won Vietnam's support for its bid for crisis-hit BP Plc's energy assets in the South Asian country, as Hanoi stressed BP must give priority to its partners in the stake sale.
Oil Minister Murli Deora flew into the Vietnamese Capital this morning with heads of bluechip Indian oil firms to lay a claim with Hanoi on BP's stake in two offshore gas fields, a pipeline and power project -- together referred as Nam Con Son, Vietnam's largest gas project.
State-run oil marketing companies Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum are likely to lose Rs 45,478 crore (Rs 454.78 billion) this fiscal on selling fuel below cost, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora today launched the 'Preferred Time LPG Delivery' scheme.
In a new twist in the gas row between the Ambani brothers in the Supreme Court, the Anil Ambani-led RNRL on Thursday sought cross-examination of Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, accusing the Government of siding with the Mukesh Ambani's group RIL.
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) may go with Oil Minister Murli Deora's proposal to free petrol prices from government control, which would trigger a hike of Rs 3.73 a litre, official sources said.
In a bid to lower the impact of an unavoidable hike in petrol and diesel prices, Oil Minister Murli Deora has asked states like Delhi and Andhra Pradesh to lower sales tax (VAT) on auto fuels and shift towards specific rates.
The ministerial panel is now likely to meet on June 24 or 25.
Five persons were killed and 150 others sustained burn injuries in a major fire that broke out after a petrol tanker exploded in Sitapura industrial area in Jaipur on Thursday evening, the police said. The fire spread fast and enveloped several factories located within a radius of three kms. Details about the extent of the damage caused by the fire is still awaited, said the police.
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