New Delhi: Petroleum ministry knocks on investment body’s door for clearances

Move would benefit RIL, Cairn, BP, BHP Billiton and ONGC. The petroleum ministry is set to approach the Prime Minister-led Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) for fast-tracking the approvals for 20 offshore exploration blocks, held up for want of defence ministry clearances, despite the firms having signed production-sharing contracts. The move would benefit Reliance Industries, Cairn, BP and BHP Billiton, apart from public-sector ONGC.

Petroleum minister Veerapa Moily has prepared a Cabinet note, recommending a new formula suggested by the Rangarajan panel to split profits between the exchequer and fuel producers from oil and gas

New Delhi: Free-market diesel price in 24 mths; only LPG, kerosene to get subsidy

The UPA government is going the whole hog on its plan to move towards fully market-determined pricing of diesel, which accounts for 60% of this year’s estimated fuel subsidy bill of R1.7 lakh crore. “In 24 months from now, everyone will pay market price for diesel, and we will have fuel subsidies only on LPG and kerosene,” a determined oil minister Veerappa Moily told FE. This is the first time the minister has said this categorically, setting at rest speculation after last week’s government directive to oil marketing companies (OMCs) on diesel pricing on whether it meant deregulation and abrogation of diesel subsidy.

OVL holds 70 per cent participating interest in the block at the llanos basin in Colombia

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the foreign investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has discovered oil on an onland block, CPO-5, in Colombia, it said in a statement on Sunday. “OVL has struck oil at two places in the first well drilled on the Block CPO-5 and produced 120-300 barrels per day on testing,” the OVL statement said. “The oil is heavy in nature with an API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity of about 14. To assess the potential and commerciality of the oil find, extended production testing will be taken up in due course for the remaining objects within the upper Mirador Formation at a depth of 9,533 feet,” the statement further said.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), on Thursday, approved the award of oil and gas blocks to two consortiums led by GAIL India and Deep Energy, respectively.However, the CCEA, headed

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday pushed for phased rationalisation of energy prices to bring them in line with international prices to meet the targeted rapid inclusive and sustainable growth.

Energy remained under-priced in the country with coal, petroluem products and natural gas prices remaining well below international prices, he said laying the foundation stone for the Rs 14,225 crore BPCL-Kochi Refinery’s Integrated Refinery Expansion Project at nearby Ambalamugal. “To meet our target of rapid inclusive and sustainable growth, we must undertake a phased rationalistion of engery prices,” Singh said.

In his first major decision, the petroleum minister, M Veerappa Moily, has allowed Reliance Industries and Cairn India to explore oil and gas within producing fields, subject to conditions.

The ministry, which had been sitting on the proposal for over a year, wrote to the directorate general of hydrocarbons (DGH) this week, saying it had decided to permit exploration in producing fields, sources said.

The oil ministry has approved further exploration in Cairn India's operational oilfields in Rajasthan to increase production.

“The proposal was pending with us for more than one and a half years. According to the existing PSC, the contractors are not prohibited for exploration in producing fields, however, we have given our approvals,” a senior oil ministry official said. "Cost-recovery shall be permitted only after commercial viability of finds are established," the official added. Anil Agarwal earlier wrote a letter to oil minister Veerappa Moily seeking permission to explore remaining potential resources in India's biggest onland oilfield. The company plans to ramp up production from its Rajasthan block to 3,00,000 barrels per day.

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