<p>With a view to give boost to agriculture sector, achieve import substitution, promote effective waste management and reduce environmental pollution Government has been blending ethanol in petrol. With
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, on Tuesday, said that while the Government was open to suggestions on dual pricing for diesel, it would be difficult to charge a market price for luxury cars and subsidised price for transport trucks at the same petrol pump. “We have knocked our heads together to see if it is possible to have dual prices of diesel at the same retail petrol pump outlet,” he said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.
NEW DELHI: The oil and gas industry is hopeful that the budget may treat natural gas on a par with crude oil for tax exemption, which could revive investors' interest in future auction of oil blocks, but it does not see any strong commitment from the government on this matter. "We can only hope, but the finance ministry is adamant that the matter, which is sub judice in various IT appellate tribunals, cannot be resolved through the Finance Bill," a senior executive in an upstream firm said requesting anonymity.
ONGC, BPCL soon to sign an MoU for putting up LNG terminal at Mangalore ONGC, Six years after the $1 billion project was put in cold storage, state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will by this month-end revive plans to set up a liquid gas (LNG) import terminal near its Mangalore refinery in Karnataka. “In next 10 to 15 days, ONGC and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will sign an MoU for putting up a LNG terminal at Mangalore,” Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily announced at the inauguration of state gas utility GAIL India Ltd’s Dabhol-Bangalore gas pipeline.
Cyrus Mistry, Anil Ambani and Chanda Kochhar on the 22-member advisory panel Power sector heavyweights including, Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry and ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani, along with top bankers, will meet power minister Jyotiraditya Scindia tomorrow to discuss issues hurting fresh investment running into lakhs of crore in the sector. This will be the first meeting of a 22-member advisory panel for the power sector.
Oil minister M Veerappa Moily on Monday ruled out a rollback in the Rs.1.50-a-litre hike in petrol and 45 paise a litre increase in diesel rates, saying only a small raise has been passed on to consumers. “I think everybody would appreciate that we have not put a lot of burden on consumers. It is only small doses,” Moily told reporters. “Our country imports 73-75% of oil. We need to pay R7 lakh crore for the imports. Where do we find that kind of money?” he said.
Signs gas transmission pact with Karnataka Power Corporation GAIL (India) commenced delivery of gas through its 1,000 km-long Dabhol-Bangalore pipeline on Monday. The first recipient of the gas was Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts, which will utilise the fuel for its captive 6.5 MW power plant. The company has installed a 73 km pipeline in Bangalore, mostly along the Outer Ring Road.
The company has said that gas supplies from Reliance D-6 block was dwindling The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has allowed GVK Group's gas-based power plant in East Godavari to use diesel as an alternate fuel after the company said gas supplies from Reliance D-6 block was dwindling. The Expert Appraisal Committee under the Ministry had earlier rejected the Group's proposal to use diesel as an alternate fuel at the plant, and advised it to approach the Ministry of Petroleum for its views on the matter.
It seeks Petroleum Ministry’s intervention to ensure audit of KG-D6 block is not carried out under CAG (DPC) Act The Mukesh-Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has written to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry seeking its intervention and an assurance that the audit of the KG-D6 block by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) would not be carried out under the CAG Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service (DPC) Act and that the CAG should clearly distinguish between its audit of the Petroleum Ministry and that of RIL.
New Delhi: Fearing oil refineries will be hit hard by the Finance Ministry's move to change the way petrol and diesel are priced, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to constitute an expert committee to decide on the issue. The Finance Ministry has informed the Petroleum Ministry that auto fuel needs to be priced at export parity rather than import parity as the 2.5 per cent customs duty was adding to the under-recoveries of the state-run oil marketing companies without contributing any revenue to the exchequer.
Complains to ministry about co not co-operating with auditors due to differences over scope of the audit The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) audit of the controversial KG-D6 gas fields operated by Reliance Industries (RIL) has again cast a shadow on pending approvals for the block’s budget and investment plans. The Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has refused to issue approval letters for the block’s work plans and budget since 2010-11. A letter written by CAG to the oil ministry on January 17 said that Reliance was not co-operating with the auditors due to differences over the scope of the audit, official sources said.
