The prices of petrol and diesel have been reduced twice since Raghaw Sharan Pandey took over as secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. In conversation with Yeshi Seli, he points out that, ideally, the retail prices of petrol and diesel should be linked with the price of crude in the international market

Net Profit: Rs1456 cr You would have imagined that with oil prices skyrocketing over the past few years, companies such as BPCL would do exceptionally well. That hasn

The recent cooling of oil prices to levels of $80 per barrel is perhaps getting oil marketing companies such as BPCL, HPCL and IOC excited. When the government worked out the

Palak Shah / Mumbai September 3, 2008, 0:40 IST

Over 100 chemical storage tanks built at the Pirpav jetty near Chembur have been operating without approvals from the ministry of environment and forests for over 18 years. Each of these tanks has an average capacity of 200,000 kilolitres of oil.

Rakteem Katakey / New Delhi August 2, 2008, 5:54 IST

Oil firms see 20% dip in sales since the June 4 increase.

The government's decision to raise fuel prices in June has scuttled the oil companies' plans to reduce their losses from retail fuel sales as consumers are buying less of premium fuels, which is more expensive than normal fuels.

Bs Reporter / New Delhi July 31, 2008, 0:00 IST

IOCL, BPCL, HPCL may buy 3.5 mt from abroad to meet demand.

Indian Oil Corporaton (IOCL), the nation's biggest refiner, and its state-run counterparts may import 3.5 million tonnes of diesel in the year ending March 2009 to meet demand for the fuel.

IOCL, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) imported 2.93 million tonnes of diesel in the last financial year, making good the shortfall in supply created by increased exports from Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat.

BS Reporter / New Delhi July 24, 2008, 15:24 IST

The oil marketing companies have been overstating the deficit from sale of subsidised petroleum products, according to Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi. He however declined to share the extent of this over-estimation.

A committee headed by him has been examining the "reported deficit and the real deficit faced by oil marketing companies as a result of price constraints imposed on them."

Rakteem Katakey / New Delhi July 24, 2008, 0:21 IST

The sharp drop in crude oil prices, which fell by more than 13 per cent from the all-time high recorded a fortnight ago, is expected to trim the losses of government-owned oil marketing companies by Rs 15,000 crore in this financial year.

Diversification plan aimed at boosting its flagging profits.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), the country's second largest oil marketing company, plans to diversify into bottled water and direct to home (DTH) services in an attempt to boost its profits.

The company reported a 91 per cent decline in its fourth quarter net profit as it was forced to sell fuel below the prevailing market price.

The problems in petroleum pricing stem from a flawed method, and will cause immense harm to the oil companies and endanger energy security. A DEBATE without data would be a meaningless exercise. But a debate with faulty or fudged data would be positively dangerous. The prolonged national "debate' over the need to increase petroleum product prices is exactly that. One of the most important arguments of the government was that the move was urgently needed to stem the bleeding losses of the publicly owned oil companies.