<p>The NGT, April 20 directed ACS, Forest and Environment, Jammu & Kashmir to look into the matter of use of snow bikes in and around the Gulmarg Wildlife Sanctuary and Eco Sensitive Zone.</p> <p><a
Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's biggest oil company, is working on a process to turn sugars into a synthetic petrol, rather than ethanol, with the aim of moving to a commercial demonstration plant in two years' time. The company yesterday announced a joint venture with Virent, a US biotech business based in Wisconsin, saying results from research over the past year had been better than expected in terms of costs and yields.
Faced with the prospects of rising global crude oil prices and its inability to match the fuel price offered by state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs), Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is understoo
Victorian petrol prices have already peaked before the Easter long weekend and will continue to drop over the next few days, the RACV says.
PetroChina faces the prospect of losing about $18bn on its refining business if the price of crude oil remains at its present level, its chairman suggested on Wednesday.
It is high time Parliament took serious note of the sordid story of the unwarranted hike in the prices of petroleum products.
Mormugao Deputy Collector Levinson Martins has convened a meeting on Thursday morning, to discuss the seepage of petroleum products into two wells at Bogmalo. Stating this, Chicolna-Bogmalo Sarpanch Laxman Kavlekar told Herald that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) officials on Wednesday claimed they had no facilities to store the petroleum that had been pumped out of two wells at Pilmad-Bogmalo. Following a complaint by Mr Kavlekar, the deputy collector had asked IOC officials to remove the petroleum product from the two wells. IOC officials undertook the operations on Saturday, but the seepage continued to take place two days later and Mr Kavlekar alleged that a third well had been contaminated in the village. "IOC officials failed to turn up to pump out the inflammable liquid on Wednesday on grounds that they did not have facilities to store the petroleum product,' Mr Kavlekar said. The sarpanch, however, admitted that the IOC had assured to resolve the problem of storage facilities at the earliest. Mr Kavlekar has now asked IOC officials to allow them to visit all eight tanks located in the naval area, which is close to the affected wells. "I have asked IOC officials to hold a joint inspection of tanks with panchayat members, to clear our doubts on whether the petroleum has seeped from the IOC tanks or from other source,' Mr Kavlekar said.
While efforts to pump out petroleum products that seeped into two wells at Pilmad Bogmalo have met with little success, Chicolna-Bogmalo Sarpanch Laxman Kavlekar has now claimed that a third well has been contaminated in the village. Mr Kavlekar has stated that IOC officials will visit the well on Wednesday to pump out the petroleum product. Speaking to Herald on Tuesday evening, Mr Kavlekar claimed that petroleum continued to seep into the wells, despite operations by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to pump out the inflammable liquid on Saturday. "I visited the two wells this evening and was surprised to find the same amount of petroleum in the wells. In fact, another well has been contaminated in the village,' said Mr Kavlekar. "On Saturday evening, IOC officials began operations to pump out the petroleum product. The next day, small quantities of petroleum were found in the two wells and residents had assumed it to be residues of the petroleum,' the sarpanch said. When contacted, Ajit Morye, an IOC official at Mumbai, told Herald that IOC officers had alerted the Mumbai office of the continued seepage of petroleum, despite pumping out the liquid on Saturday. "Samples collected from the two wells have confirmed that the petroleum product found in the contaminated wells was not Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF),' Mr Morye said. He, however, admitted IOC officials investigating the cause of the seepage are yet to identify its source. "Bogmalo is no Gulf country. From where would the seepage originate, if not from the eight tanks in the naval area,' asked Mr Kavlekar.
Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's announcement of a 5% cut in the freight rates for moving petrol and diesel is indeed an effort to bring back the oil traffic from roads to the railways. The reduction in freight rate, announced as part of the Railway Budget proposals for 2008-09, is not sufficient enough to warrant any cut in the consumer prices of petrol and diesel. The freight rate cut will help the oil Companies
Mamlatdar, police, Navy directed to submit reports Mormugao Deputy Collector Levinson Martins has directed the Mamlatdar, police and naval authorities to submit their reports, following complaints from the Bogmalo panchayat that petrol had seeped into two wells and a spring in the village. Chicolna
Even though the government has recently allowed state-owned oil marketing Companies to marginally increase the prices of petrol and diesel, one doesn't need to use rocket science to figure out that the hike is just not enough to help Indian Oil Corp, HPCL and BPCL to tide over their losses. These downstream Companies have been selling petrol, diesel LPG and kerosene much below the actual price. To keep voters happy, the government decided to limit the hike in a range of Re 1-Rs 2 a litre when Rs 9 for petrol and Rs 11 for diesel were actually required. Also, the prices of LPG and kerosene were left untouched. This was when kerosene needed to be increased to Rs 20 a litre and an LPG cylinder priced close to Rs 330. At the same time, a partial relief package was promised to the oil Companies. This included issuance of oil bonds of a higher quantum
