The business people in the port city on Wednesday urged the government to be aggressive in taking decision on coal mining and gas exploration to help rapid industrialisation and accelerate economic growth. Addressing a reception accorded to the newly elected office bearers of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), they also expressed their continued support for sustaining the business-friendly atmosphere the country achieved after January 11, 2007.

For a large enterprise such as Oil India Ltd (OIL), which has a number of offices including those at remote locations, information integration is important for enabling transparency and speedy decision-making. Oil India wanted to have a system that would integrate its processes and systems to streamline oil exploration, production as well as the transportation of crude oil and natural gas. It wanted to get a quick overview of information pertaining to its operations.

In a major relief to companies like Reliance Industries, the government is likely to restore a 7-year income tax holiday on oil and gas production as it was a sovereign commitment to companies investing in the nascent sector. But uncertainity continues over the same tax break being extended to refineries commissioning after April 1, 2009. Sources in the finance ministry said the Budget proposals for 2008-09 had actually intended only to introduce a sunset clause for 7-year income tax holiday for refineries commissioned after April 1, 2009.

New Delhi and Ashgabat will on Saturday sign a historic pact that would give India a footing equal to the Chinese in Turkmenistan. The MoU would open avenues for bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the upstream and downstream hydro-carbon activities. Though Turkmenistan has offered off-shore exploration blocks to India, only China has been given a discovered field for development which would supply 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas to China over 30 years.

Alarmed by the growing influence of China in the oil and gas sector in many African countries, India has decided to turn its focus from the OPEC countries to the African nations for acquisition of oil

Banned outfit ULFA has warned ONGC and Oil India Limited (OIL) to desist from carrying out seismic exploration of hydrocarbons in the Brahmaputra valley in the interests of safeguarding historic monum

Continuing with its golden run, Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries on Tuesday announced a second gas discovery in the Krishna Godavari basin block off the Andhra Pradesh coast.

I am writing this article by the light of a gas lamp in my home in the forest sanctuary of Binsar in the hills of Kumaon.