None

A detailed environmental assessment by IIT-Madras found that despite the cleanup by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) in north Chennai, the volume of oil contaminating drinking water has

Mangroves stretching over several kilometres along the coast in the eastern suburb of Mahul have been destroyed due to an oil leak from a pipeline carrying furnace oil from the sea to a refinery in the area. The sprawling black sheet of oil has settled on the mudflats too, affecting the seedlings of mangroves.

Forest officials told The Hindu that the damage was serious and had happened over a period of time. “We did not know the source of the oil leak then, but we issued a preliminary report on October 17 pointing out that oil was continuously leaking in the area,” Sanjay Mali, divisional forest officer told The Hindu after inspecting the location on Thursday.

The fishermen from Mahul gaon, a quiet fishing village near Chembur, are a distressed lot.

The State pollution control board will collect water samples from Tondiarpet on Wednesday to check the level of contamination from oil seepage.

Groundwater in the northern neighbourhood has been contaminated for the past six months due to oil seepage from a pipeline belonging to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL).

Experts from IIT-Madras and engineers from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on Thursday collected water samples from Tondiarpet, where oil from pipelines has polluted groundwater.

Union environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan on Thursday called for setting up a corpus fund to help quick response to oil spills in the sea and protecting India's fragile coastal eco-

Oil minister M Veerappa Moily on Monday ruled out a rollback in the Rs.1.50-a-litre hike in petrol and 45 paise a litre increase in diesel rates, saying only a small raise has been passed on to consumers.

“I think everybody would appreciate that we have not put a lot of burden on consumers. It is only small doses,” Moily told reporters. “Our country imports 73-75% of oil. We need to pay R7 lakh crore for the imports. Where do we find that kind of money?” he said.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is issuing a notice to three state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) on a probe on whether they form a cartel to fix petrol prices.

The commission is also looking at the coal and fertiliser sectors, where government-owned companies dominate the market. “Law does not distinguish between government and private companies,” said Ashok Chawla, chairman of CCI, addressing the annual global investor conference here of Kotak Institutional Equities. “After the government clarified that it does not have a role to play in petrol pricing after deregulation, we have taken up the issue.”

ONGC, BPCL soon to sign an MoU for putting up LNG terminal at Mangalore

ONGC, Six years after the $1 billion project was put in cold storage, state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will by this month-end revive plans to set up a liquid gas (LNG) import terminal near its Mangalore refinery in Karnataka. “In next 10 to 15 days, ONGC and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will sign an MoU for putting up a LNG terminal at Mangalore,” Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily announced at the inauguration of state gas utility GAIL India Ltd’s Dabhol-Bangalore gas pipeline.

Indian Oil Corporation review meeting later this week

The next phase of rise in diesel prices seems, unlike earlier, to be a non-combined exercise from the three government oil marketing companies ( OMCs). On January 17, the government allowed Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to eliminate the loss on sale of diesel to bulk consumers at one go and do a gradual rise in prices at monthly intervals for retail outlets — the government had suggested a 45-50p/litre rise at a time. A month gets over this Sunday, since the decision

Pages