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.

In a major breakthrough for the state-run Oil India Limited (OIL) in securing oil and gas assets abroad, the company and its partners have entered into an agreement with National Oil Corporation of Libya for four exploration blocks in that country that are estimated to hold two trillion cubic metres (tcm) of gas reserves. According to an official spokesman here, a consortia of OIL, Algeria's Sonatrach and Indian Oil Corporation, signed exploration and production sharing agreement with the National Oil Corporation of Libya.

Fuel From The Fields: A Balance-Sheet What are biofuels? Made from renewable sources, biofuels promise a viable, eco-friendly substitute to fossil fuels. Can be made from a variety of crops like maize, sugarcane, beetroot, palm oil, jatropha-anything that is rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Typically, blended with petrol or diesel. Why are they controversial? Countries like the US are diverting their corn and maize crops to produce biofuels, thus contributing to the tight foodgrain position and spiralling global prices. What are the types of biofuel?

The Federation of All India Petroleum Dealers has strongly condemned the move by the Indian Oil Corporation to stop supply of normal petrol and diesel products and instead "force' the dealers to only sell premium branded fuels from their retail outlets.

The issue of increasing ethanol blend in petrol to 10%, from the current level of 5%, has once again fuelled protests from oil marketing Companies. While Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) says that ethanol quantity in domestic market would be insufficient, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is of the view that branded fuel shouldn't be supplied without ethanol blending.

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) today despatched a memorandum to the Union Minister of Petroleum and the chairman, Indian Oil Corporation urging them to take urgent action to retain the identity of Assam Oil Division, Digboi Refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited, keeping in view the interest of the people of the region. The AASU stated that the decision to shift the entire marketing operation of Assam Oil Division from Digboi to Guwahati to a new set up has created confusion in the minds of the people of Assam.

Flagship refiner-marketer IndianOil Corporation is worried over the withdrawal of tax holiday to new refineries announced in the Budget, a move that will reduce the profitability of its new refinery b

Mormugao Deputy Collector Levinson Martins has convened a meeting on Thursday morning, to discuss the seepage of petroleum products into two wells at Bogmalo. Stating this, Chicolna-Bogmalo Sarpanch Laxman Kavlekar told Herald that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) officials on Wednesday claimed they had no facilities to store the petroleum that had been pumped out of two wells at Pilmad-Bogmalo. Following a complaint by Mr Kavlekar, the deputy collector had asked IOC officials to remove the petroleum product from the two wells. IOC officials undertook the operations on Saturday, but the seepage continued to take place two days later and Mr Kavlekar alleged that a third well had been contaminated in the village. "IOC officials failed to turn up to pump out the inflammable liquid on Wednesday on grounds that they did not have facilities to store the petroleum product,' Mr Kavlekar said. The sarpanch, however, admitted that the IOC had assured to resolve the problem of storage facilities at the earliest. Mr Kavlekar has now asked IOC officials to allow them to visit all eight tanks located in the naval area, which is close to the affected wells. "I have asked IOC officials to hold a joint inspection of tanks with panchayat members, to clear our doubts on whether the petroleum has seeped from the IOC tanks or from other source,' Mr Kavlekar said.

The National Disaster Management Authority conducted an Industrial disaster drill at Indian Oil Corporation Limited (Assam Oil division's) at Digboi Refinery recently. The drill was conducted to test the preparedness of the civil administration concerned in the event of a major industrial disaster. The scenario envisaged for the disaster involved three mishaps: leakage of LPG at the LPG dispatch unit. Blast in hydrogen bullets in the refinery and leakage of chlorine due to catastrophic failure of toner, occurring almost simultaneously resulting in a large number of casualties. The District Administration, Civil Hospital, Civil Defence, State Fire Service, Police Department, Revenue Department, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (Assam Oil Divisions's) mutual aid partners such as Oil India Limited, Assam Gas Company Limited, North East Electric Power Corporation, Brahmaputra Valley Fertilisers Limited, Coal India Limited participated in the drill. NGOs like Lions Club of Digboi, Rotary Club of Digboi, also participated in the drill. At the concluding session, Brig (Dr) BK Khanna, senior specialist, National Disaster Management Authority, spoke on the various observations made by the expert panel of Brig Khanna, R Dubey, Director, National Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal and CR Deka, Chief Factories Inspector, Asom. He appreciated the response of the various organizations involved in the drill and pointed out the areas where further improvement could be effected. The session ended with vote of thanks from CR Deka, Chief Inspector of Factories, Asom. The National Disaster Management Authority was created after the enactment of the Disaster Management Act of the Government of India in December 2005 to spearhead and implement a holistic and integrated approach to disaster management in India. Since its inception, the authority has been stimulating disaster scenarios in various parts of the country and conducting detailed mock drills on disaster management, sources added.

Government will also establish a National Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Centre in Gurgaon The first hydrogen dispensing station will be established in New Delhi this year as part of the Central government's efforts to develop alternative energy sources, including hydrogen and fuel cells, V.Subramanian, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said here on Friday. Inaugurating a national workshop on Fuel Cell Technology at SRM University in Kattankulathur, Mr. Subramanian, whose speech was read out in absentia by B.M.S. Bist, Adviser to the Ministry, said the dispensing station would be set up by the Indian Oil Corporation. The proposed facility would dispense hydrogen compressed natural gas (H CNG) as part of the Ministry's project. The Ministry had supported a project by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers for introducing a blend of H CNG as fuel (after necessary modifications) in vehicles currently running on CNG. Mr. Subramanian said the government would also establish a National Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Centre in Gurgaon, Haryana. The Centre's National Hydrogen Energy Road Map had proposed setting up power stations with a capacity to produce 1,000 MW of electricity using Hydrogen as fuel by 2020 and also the introduction of one million vehicles with Hydrogen as fuel. "The Ministry would work with academic and research institutions, private sector, engineering manufacturers and industry for this purpose,' Mr. Subramanian said. T.R. Pachamuthu, chancellor of the private university, said they would be introducing an elective course on Fuel Cell Technology from the next academic year (2008-09) for mechanical and chemical engineering students. And to promote research in fuel cell technology, an energy lab would be set up with an investment of $70,000 from Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, that had supported the workshop.

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