Brendan Lynch, the assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asia, will pay a five-day visit to India beginning Tuesday, days before US President Donald Trump's tit-for-tat tariff kicks in. The senior US trade official is expected to hold talks with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal besides meeting a number of senior Indian officials.
In a note for the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the ministry has proposed raising gas price for state-run firms immediately and that for RIL from April 2014, sources privy to the development said.
BP will pay $7.2 billion for 30 per cent stake in exploration blocks.
India has rejected a request from BP Plc to be allowed to sell jet fuel to the booming aviation market.
The government on Thursday approved Rs 20,001 crore in additional cash subsidy to state-owned oil companies to compensate them for selling fuel below cost in 2010-11 fiscal. With this, the government has paid a total of Rs 40,912 crore in subsidy to oil companies in 2010-11 financial year, an oil ministry official said.
India's policy to subsidise retail prices of fuels such as diesel, which accounts for about 40 per cent of refined fuel consumption, is a major drain on the budget.
Donald Trump is catering to the basest fears and prejudice of unenlightened Americans -- yes, there are those too, in sizeable enough numbers to elect one of their own as president. That would most certainly not Make America Great Again, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
A CCEA meeting is scheduled for tomorrow but the approval for the Cairn-Vedanta deal is not listed on its agenda so far.
India's crude oil import bill is set to exceed $100 billion in the current fiscal year ending March 31, almost double its spending last year, as international oil prices trade at seven-year highs. India spent $94.3 billion in the first 10 months (April-January) of the ongoing financial year that started April 1, 2021, according to data from the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC). It spent $11.6 billion in January alone when oil prices had started to surge.
On July 27, power ministry had written to the oil ministry saying 'the marketing margin being charged by RIL is not in line with the decisions of an empowered group of ministers on pricing formula (for KG-D6 gas)'. While Anil Ambani Group firm RNRL on Sunday alleged that RIL was charging 'unauthorised' marketing margin, 35 firms buying KG-D6 gas are paying the $0.135 per mmBtu to RIL without protest.
As per the current market price, the government is expected to fetch Rs 5,300 crore (Rs 53 billion) by selling 10 per cent equity or 24.27 crore (242.7 million) shares at discounted price to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India Ltd.
The government allows the oil companies to sell only a quarter of the total quantum of bonds they hold at any time during a quarter, so as to ensure that the market is not flooded with oil bonds. It has not yet decided on how the subsidy burden will be shared across stakeholders, how much of the subsidy from the government account will be given in cash and how much in the form of bonds, says an official.
The government has slashed allocation of natural gas used for LPG production, and diverted the low-priced fuel to city gas retailers like Indraprastha Gas Ltd and Adani-Total Gas Ltd to meet a part of their requirement for CNG/piped cooking gas supplies, according an official order. The government had in October and November last year cut supplies of low-priced natural gas coming from old fields such as Mumbai High and Bassein fields in the Bay of Bengal, to city gas retailers by as much as 40 per cent in view of limited output.
The Oil Ministry, which had been sitting on the proposal for over a year, wrote to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons earlier this week saying that it has been decided to permit exploration in already producing oil and gas fields, sources privy to the development said.
With the Petroleum Ministry opposing disinvestment of IOC in the market, government is exploring the option of selling its shares to other oil PSUs like ONGC and OIL.
The ministry had sent a draft proposal for the consideration of the Empowered Group of Ministers to price all domestically produced natural gas -- be of state-run ONGC or private sector Reliance Industries - as per the formula suggested by the Rangarajan Committee.
State-owned ONGC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) are likely to buy a 10 per cent stake in Indian Oil Corp (IOC) from the government at Rs 220 per share, aggregating about Rs 5,300 crore (Rs 53 billion).
India's climate change goals are turning combustible. On the one hand, a protracted dispute between the government and manufacturers over subsidies threatens to slow the pace of electric vehicle (EV) sales. On the other hand, repeated assertions by different arms of the government over banning sales of new fossil fuel-fired vehicles have queered the pitch for energy investments. Before we address the issue of the recommended diesel vehicle ban in the recent report on energy transition, issued months before the next round of global climate talks begin in Dubai in November, let's look at what's at stake.
Arun Kumar Singh, former chairman of oil refining and marketing company BPCL, was on Wednesday appointed chairman and managing director of ONGC -- the first instance of a retired person being appointed the head of a Maharatna PSU. "The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has approved the proposal of ministry of petroleum and natural gas for appointment of Arun Kumar Singh, ex-CMD, BPCL as chairman, ONGC for a three-year tenure with effect from the date of his assumption of charge of the post," an official order said. PTI first reported of Singh's appointment on November 17.
Disinvestment secretary Sunil Mitra last month wrote to his counterpart in Petroleum ministry R S Pandey seeking comments on 'public offerings from Government's shareholding' in ONGC and IOC. While government has not allowed IOC and other retailers Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum to raise petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene price in line with the cost, they have not been given the promised compensation.
The world's fourth-biggest oil and gas consumer imports nearly three-quarters of its energy requirements
The Oil Ministry has been trying since July to get an Empowered Committee of Secretaries to vet the separate price proposals of RIL and Essar but the panel has so far not decided to take up the issue.
The US Trade Representative noted that India's average applied tariff rate stood at 17% per cent, the highest of any major world economy.
Dudley, whose company last year made the largest foreign direct investment in the oil sector, followed it up with a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
The 18 companies sanctioned include Marshall Islands-registered Changtai Shipping and Motionavigations Limited and UAE-based Indo Gulf Ship Management.
Cheaper crude oil weakens rupee even as core sector growth revives
India has given a four-month ultimatum to Iran to offer a discovered oil field if it wanted to export 5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas to New Delhi.
The government has slapped a $2.81 billion (about Rs 24,500 crore) demand notice on Reliance Industries and its partners, including BP Plc for gains made from producing and selling natural gas that may have migrated from neighbouring block of state-owned ONGC. This follows the Delhi high court's decision on February 14, overturning an international arbitration tribunal ruling that held the duo not responsible for paying any compensation for the gas they produced and sold which had allegedly migrated from adjoining fields.
Govt was vary of giving BJP-leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi any kind of advantage on the eve of elections in the state.
India and the United States will finalize the contours, schedule of negotiations, and terms of reference for a proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) during a three-day meeting beginning Tuesday. The agreement is expected to be finalized in two tranches, with the first phase focusing on goods trade. The US team, led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, will be in India from March 25-29 to discuss the agreement. Both countries are aiming to conclude the first phase of the agreement by fall 2025.
He also states that there has been no confirmation from the oil ministry that pricing autonomy would be given to oil companies.\n
Despite the steep hike of Rs 20 per LPG cylinder announced last week, domestic cooking gas in India is still the cheapest in the subcontinent.
Russia on Thursday said it was not bothered at a possible price cap on its crude oil proposed by the West, saying Moscow will negotiate directly with its partners like India and China as the price should be decided between the producers and consumers, and "not someone who just decided to punish someone." Members of the G7 have agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil in a bid to hit Moscow's ability to finance the war in Ukraine. Countries want to reach an agreement ahead of December 5, when Europe's embargo on Russian crude travelling by sea takes effect.
The petroleum ministry is likely to advocate allowing its public sector units like ONGC to bid for acquiring management control in oil refiner HPCL, which the government on Monday said would be put on the block.\n\n
The government on Monday approved Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) in cash subsidy to state-owned fuel retailers to make up for half of the revenues they lost on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost in the third quarter.
Petrol and diesel prices were cut by Rs 2 per litre each as state-owned oil companies ended a nearly two-year-long hiatus in rate revision, just hours before the general election schedule was announced.
Allegations against Sibal include approving Reliance Industries' four-fold increase in capital expenditure to $8.8 billion for the nation's largest gas field KG-D6 in return of personal benefits.
