New Delhi The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is likely to consider awarding of eight more oil and gas blocks that were offered in the ninth round of bidding under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), on Tuesday.

The government had offered 34 areas for exploration and production of oil and gas in NELP-IX in 2010 and bids for 33 were received at the close of bidding on March 28 last year. Of these, CCEA in March awarded 16 blocks to firms, while bids for 10 blocks were rejected due to bidders offering lesser than expected profit petroleum.

New Delhi State-run oil explorer ONGC said on Saturday it has made a huge oil discovery off the west coast that will help the state-owned firm raise its sagging oil output.

GAIL (India), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) have expressed their willingness to source LNG on long- and medium-term basis from existing and upcoming LNG liquefaction terminals, including for the Ennore LNG terminal, in Russia. Senior officials in the Petroleum Ministry said the issue was likely to come up for discussion during the upcoming visit of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to India in October. It is understood that Russia is considering development of greenfield LNG projects on the Eastern Coast of Vladivostok and capacity expansion of its existing Shakhalin-2 project to cater to Asian LNG markets

Chandigarh: Oil and Natural Gas Commission’s former engineer I.S. Kalsi was today asked by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to submit his report on uranium content in Malwa waters.

Jaisalmer: Public sector company Oil India Ltd (OIL) has for the first time found oil reserves at Poonam Singh ki Dhani in Nachna area of Jaisalmer 1,230 metre below the ground.

According to sources, digging of oil well is going on at the allotted block RJON 2004/2 NILP/16 in Nachna area for the last few days and good quality oil reserves have been found at a depth of 1,230 metre. Samples of the findings have been sent for testing. OIL will also dig one more well near the existing well to find out if there are more reserves, company officials said.

Tripura will emerge as the biggest on-land natural gas producing state in the country by 2014 with the capacity of producing 50 lakh cubic meter natural gas (5 MMSCMD) per day, a top official of ON

Agartala, July 25: The Assam government is keen to purchase surplus power set to be produced in North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (Neepco)’s Monarchak thermal power plant in West Tri

The Association of Scientific and Technical Officers (ASTO) and Employees’ Welfare Committee (EWC) of Assam Asset, the two leading unions affiliated to the ONGC had jointly organised a relief camp

SIVASAGAR: With the rising water levels of mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries causing unprecedented havoc in Assam, ONGC conducted relief operation to help the flood affected people of the State.

ONGC has so far taken a slew of initiatives to give respite to the people hit hard by nature’s fury. Among the 24-flood affected districts, Sivasagar, the nerve centre of ONGC’s operations is one of the worst flood hit in Assam. The areas close to the Brahmaputra have been devastated in the floods, with thousands of people rendered homeless and forced to take temporary shelters on high grounds.

Uttar Pradesh, which has about 4,000 mines of coal, silica, bauxite and granite – mostly in Bundelkhand region, has mandated e-tendering for future allotment of mining leases in the state.

This step is aimed at preventing hitherto rampant illegal mining and ushering transparency in allotment of mining leases. Under the system, lease holder will have to get environment clearance for mining within 6 months if the land area is more than 5 hectares (ha), whereas, in case of lease for mining of area of less than 5 hectares, environment clearance will not be required.