The directive from 'above' has come to the petroleum ministry on the eve of the departure of the Indian delegation to Tehran for a decisive last round of the trilateral negotiations scheduled to be held there later this week.
On instructions from the Prime Minister's Office for a more uniform distribution of the natural resource, the petroleum ministry had in December 2007 scrapped all contracts for sale of gas produced from PMT fields and nominated GAIL for selling it to 'fuel-starved' fertiliser plants outside Gujarat. But after protests, the ministry agreed to partly restore 3.6 million standard cubic meters per day of gas out of 5.1 mmscmd consumed by RIL's petrochemical plants.
Eight candidates, including Najeeb Jung, former joint secretary (exploration) in the petroleum ministry, are in race for the job of chairman and managing director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
The big-ticket transnational gas pipelines that India was planning seem to be in trouble. Although the government maintains that the three pipelines
Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan observed that smaller and more nimble companies are proving formidable and ONGC would have to register exploration successes and strengthen its systems to retain its position in the industry.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is believed to have favoured India, Pakistan and Iran together building the over $7 billion gas pipeline, since joint participation will make the project more secure.
Oil product consumption in November was 10.99 million tons, a tad higher than 10.77 million tons in the same month last year, according to latest data available from the petroleum ministry. Diesel sales, which had during the first part of current fiscal seen a growth rate of 15-16 per cent, rose by 8.6 per cent to 4.46 million tons in November while demand for petrol was up 5.9 per cent to 914,900 tons.
The proposed price increase, the first in 18 months, is likely to be in the range of Rs 2 per litre for petrol and Re 1 per litre for diesel, senior petroleum ministry officials said.
The basket of crude oil India imports averaged $99 a barrel on Tuesday, the lowest level since April 2, a petroleum ministry official said. It had averaged $96.52 a barrel on April 1 and crossed the $100 mark on April 7.
Government may impose a 25 per cent cess on big diesel cars and charge bulk users other than railways and state transport corporations Rs 22 a litre more for diesel as part of a dual fuel pricing policy.
"The letter approving a price of $4.20 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) for first five years of production from KG-D6 was issued by the Petroleum Ministry on Thursday," a source familiar with the development said.
India's exports contracted 12.2 per cent to $34.48 billion in December 2022, mainly due to global headwinds, and the trade deficit widened to $23.76 billion during the same period, according to official data released on Monday. Imports in December 2022 also declined 3.5 per cent to $58.24 billion as against $60.33 billion in the year-ago period. In December 2021, exports stood at $39.27 billion and the trade deficit was at $21.06 billion.
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).
Anil Ambani Group never sought clarification before bids closed, says DGH.
The government may permit Reliance Industries Limited to export surplus LPG from the west coast and allow it to import on the deficit east coast to make huge savings on freight cost.
India's crude oil production rose by 3.2 per cent in May on back of better performance by state- owned oil major Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), while refinery output remained unchanged.
The shortage of drilling rigs across the world is likely to delay the seventh round of auction of oil and gas blocks, under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy, till October-November this year.
The petroleum ministry has agreed to the proposal of the department of industrial policy and promotion and it would be taken to the Cabinet along with the general review of the FDI policy in September.
India, Pakistan agree on gas transport price.
The government on Wednesday mandated the petroleum ministry to hold dialogue with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Myanmar to secure natural gas supplies through pipelines to meet demand of the country.
OMCs' Digital India move is likely to have an impact on more than 80.3 million Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana consumers, majority of whom are not exposed to digital transact.
Star ratings would be applicable for diesel pumps in the agriculture sector.
Wholesale price-based inflation rate fell to a 3-year low of (-) 3.48 per cent in May on easing prices of food, fuel and manufactured items, strengthening the case for continuing with the pause in rate hike in the coming months of the current fiscal. This is the second straight month when WPI has been in the negative zone mainly on account of a higher base and falling prices of fuel and manufactured goods. Food prices also eased during May. In May, 2022 WPI inflation was at 16.63 per cent. Last month, it was (-) 0.92 per cent.
Government may raise petrol price by Rs 2 a litre and diesel by Re 1 a litre this week, but a duty rejig to minimise impact of high international crude oil prices looks unlikely. The decision on this will be taken by the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Cairn India, which is 69 per cent owned by London-listed Cairn Energy, is very close to securing the vital approval it needs to begin work on the pipeline to transport the oil from its vast Rajasthan oil fields, the Indian government has said.
Both of them will be produced in court around noon.
The GoM meet on fuel price hike remained inconclusive. The ministers evaluated various options of fuel hike but failed to arrive on a decision.
The government is mulling a marginal hike in petrol and diesel price along with an excise duty cut on auto fuels to cut the Rs 7,840 crore (Rs 78.40 billion) loss public sector oil firms are incurring every month on selling fuel below cost.
Every dollar increase in crude oil price will add Rs 4,000 crore to the overall underrecovery.
Teheran bargains on OilMin plan for more rupee payment via increased import; wants investment deal on gas block.
It is for the first time in the history of Independent India that not a single Muslim is part of the Union Cabinet.
Faced with opposition from within the ruling coalition, the government has put-off till at least next week a decision on raising fuel prices that have been necessitated due to crude nearing $100 a barrel globally. The petroleum ministry has planned to take to the Cabinet this week a proposal to either marginally raise petrol and diesel prices or cut duties to offset the impact of raising international oil prices but the proposal is not being pursued this week.
The petroleum ministry has prepared a draft Cabinet note for raising prices of natural gas produced by ONGC from fields given to it on nomination basis to Rs 3,765 per thousand cubic metres (or $1.98 per million British thermal unit) from current Rs 3,200 per thousand cubic meter ($1.68 per mmBtu). For OIL, the gas price has been proposed at Rs 4,205 per thousand cubic meters, a senior ministry official said.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons Chief V K Sibal, whose appointment on the ONGC board has triggered a controversy, on Monday said ONGC chairman Subir Raha's non-acceptance of his appointment amounted to "gross indiscipline."
"Petroleum Ministry has moved a Cabinet note for raising fuel prices but a decision will depend on what allies of the ruling alliance say," an official said.
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