GAIL pulled up for undue benefit of Rs 246 crore to private firms

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled up Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for hiring a drilling rig from Reliance Industries (RIL) without calling for competitive bids. It also indicted GAIL (India) for giving over Rs 246 crore of undue benefit to private power companies by selling natural gas at subsidised rates.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) did not try hard enough to complete the committed work in 75 per cent of the blocks it had acquired through bidding. Also, ONGC could not monetise the discoveries made during the 2002-2011 period, leading to low production.

The CAG report on ONGC’s hydrocarbon exploration efforts said the company did not complete its committed work in 25 prospective blocks, drilling only 30 of the 90 committed wells in the specified period. The auditor said the company had succeeded in monetising only two of the 56 offshore discoveries and 73 of its 158 discoveries during 2002-2011. “Non-monetised offshore discoveries contained major reserve accretion,” the report stated.

IMPHAL: There shall be no public hearings relating to oil exploration in Manipur. On Friday, a public hearing held at Nungba in Tamenglong district had to be wound up following protests from the villagers. The private company had plans to explore oil in 17 different places of the State. The Jubiliant Oil and Gas Private Limited was authorized to explore oil deposits in Manipur.

If the project was approved, exploration works would go ahead. However, there have been oppositions from the villagers in all public hearings. From the very beginning, the Committee on the protection of natural resources in Manipur has been opposing the government move, During the public hearing at Nungba, a large number of villagers had come to disrupt the proceedings.

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), is eyeing stake in Russia’s ambitious Arctic Ocean oil and gas projects with US major ExxonMobil and Italian energy giant ENI.

OVL on May 4 wrote to Russian state oil company Rosneft expressing interest in taking stake in one of the three joint ventures announced to explore for oil and gas beneath Arctic Ocean, sources privy to the development said.

Include exploration & production in NEIIP list, say energy companies.

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.

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.

IMPHAL, July 31 – Manipur-based Naga bodies have strongly objected to oil exploration activities in Tamenglong and Churachandpur and Jiribam subdivision of the State.

'Public hearing organized by the Manipur Pollution Control Board to gauge the opinion of the people was a dismal show'

IMPHAL: The attempt of Indian government to explore oil at Jiribam sub-division of Imphal East district has started facing rough weather with all sections of people objecting to it. It did not come as a complete surprise that public hearing organized by the Manipur Pollution Control Board to gauge the opinion of the people was a dismal show. Except for the handful of protestors the hall was deserted much to the chagrin of the officials and oil exploration contractors.