New Delhi A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking to declare the $8.48-billion Cairn-Vedanta deal as illegal.

A bench headed by Justice HL Dattu is likely to hear the matter on March 2. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had on January 24 granted final approval to the deal.

Late last year, when energy major British Gas’s Indian arm, BG India, announced plans to exit from two of its Indian energy assets, the industry wondered if it was a fullstop to BG’s India plans.

New Delhi To serve the expected addition in refining capacity and to partly replace any shortfall in crude oil supplies from Iran, India has sought an additional 5 million tonne of crude oil from Saudi Arabia. India has also sought investments from Saudi firms in its new petrochemical and refinery projects.

“We have sought 5 million tonne extra crude oil from Saudi Arabia for 2012-13,” minister of state for petroleum and natural gas R P N Singh said here after holding discussions with the visiting assistant minister for petroleum affairs Abdul Aziz Bin Salman bin Abdulaziz.

Urge Centre to reform debt-ridden state electricity boards

Leading power sector honchos on Wednesday met the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Pulok Chatterjee, and demanded that steps be taken to address their long-pending demands, including immediate allocation of gas to all the projects recommended by the Power Ministry, reforms in the debt-ridden state electricity boards and priority in gas allocation to power and fertilizer sectors in the XII Plan.

Empowered Committee of Secretaries clears 14 blocks to the first ranked/single bidder

Meeting notice seeks details about ENI operated block

With the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry's spat with the Defence Ministry and the Department of Space remaining unresolved, a worried Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has convened an urgent meeting on February 27 on the delay in carrying out exploration activities in blocks under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and also delay in announcing NELP-IX round.

The Union government was contemplating action against Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for not keeping its promise of producing 70 MMSCMD of gas (million metric standard cubic meters a day) from i

SIVASAGAR, Feb 7 – Muga, or the “golden silk”, has always been the pride of Assam. Over the years, muga silk has become a unique part of Assamese culture and tradition.

TEHRAN: Iran has given a one-month ultimatum to an Indian consortium over the development of a gas field whose delay by India has been attributed to western pressure, the semi-official Fars news ag

With the Finance Ministry still to come out with a final formula on sharing the fuel subsidy burden, the government has asked upstream oil companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil Indi