Banking on the phased deregulation of diesel pricing, the government proposes to cap subsidy on this fuel at R6 per litre in 2013-14 to insulate itself from volatility in global crude oil prices wh

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.

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.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding re-insurance for oil refineries over crude oil import from Iran, companies here are not perturbed yet about the United States’ sanctions in this regard. They said they believe the government would come out with a solution by June.

Hit largely by the sanctions are the country’s largest importer of Iranian crude oil, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals ( MRPL), a subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and Indian Oil’s ( IOC’s) Chennai Petroleum Corporation.

State-owned gas firm GAIL (India) Ltd and US arm of France’s EDF group have placed a joint bid to acquire some of Spanish energy company Repsol SA’s LNG assets in Trinidad and Tobago.

‘‘We have placed a non-binding bid,’’ GAIL Chairman and Managing Director BC Tripathi told reporters here. Repsol has put on sale its gas assets in Canada, Peru and Trinidad & Tobago. Refusing to divulge details, Tripathi said the bids, which were submitted recently, were initial and non-binding in nature and GAIL-EDF combine will make a financial bid only once they are shortlisted.

Kolkata/Ranchi: Coal India (CIL) is foraying into the solar power sector with a view to make use of its whopping cash reserve of above R60,000 crore in a meaningful way.

CIL chairman and managing director S Narsing Rao told FE there are business opportunities in the solar power sector and a scope to take some climate mitigation initiatives as well. “Foraying into solar power is expected to give us returns higher than the interest we are earning. It would also be a carbon mitigating project,” Rao said.

The government will pay Rs 25,000 crore additional cash subsidy to state-owned fuel retailers to make up for part of the revenue they lost on selling auto and cooking fuel below cost this fiscal.

The Finance Ministry on February 7 issued a "comfort letter" to Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) sanctioning Rs 25,000 crore for part of the revenue they lost on selling diesel,

New Delhi: Fearing oil refineries will be hit hard by the Finance Ministry's move to change the way petrol and diesel are priced, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to constitute an expert committee to decide on the issue.

The Finance Ministry has informed the Petroleum Ministry that auto fuel needs to be priced at export parity rather than import parity as the 2.5 per cent customs duty was adding to the under-recoveries of the state-run oil marketing companies without contributing any revenue to the exchequer.

The proposed policy will ensure parity in the price of imported and locally-produced gas

The Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will soon bring in a Uniform Gas Price Policy to ensure parity in the price of imported and locally-produced gas. "I have worked out the policy, but don't know whether it has to go to the Cabinet or not. The proposed policy will ensure one price for gas that is imported and that is produced here," Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily said here this evening.

If the price rise is approved, it would raise costs for power and fertiliser companies and other natural gas buyers such as city gas distributors

The pricing of natural gas is set for a major revamp. An empowered group of ministers is likely to approve new policy guidelines based on the Rangarajan committee report; this would more-than-double the price of domestic gas sold by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India. If the price rise is approved, it would raise costs for power and fertiliser companies and other natural gas buyers such as city gas distributors.