<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
Says the move to continue till losses are wiped out Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday said diesel prices would be raised 40-50 paise a litre every month until under-recoveries on the fuel were completely wiped out. “Until further orders, oil marketing companies can increase it (diesel prices) by 40-50 paise (a litre) every month,” he told reporters here. On January 17, the government had decided to move towards deregulating diesel prices. It had empowered state-owned oil companies to raise prices in small doses every month.
The government’s decision to cap the number of subsidised LPG (liquefied natural gas) cylinders seems to have brought cheer to oil companies as their auto gas segment has registered significant growth since last September. IndianOil Corp Ltd, for instance, saw a growth of around 22 per cent in volumes and nearly two per cent in its market share. It traded nearly 10,517 million tonnes (mt) of auto gas in December against 8,593 mt of auto gas in September.
India’s northeastern state Nagaland has declared independence from the Union oil ministry and invited bids for 11 exploration blocks in the state without involving the petroleum ministry, which has rushed to the home ministry in protest. The centre was caught napping, when Nagaland invited “expressions of interest” from oil companies after setting up a ministerial group on petroleum, officials in the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, technical arm of the oil ministry, told ET. “It appears that this action of the state government of Nagaland is ultra vires of the Constitution,” director general of hydrocarbons RN Choubey said in a letter to the oil ministry.
The proposed policy will ensure parity in the price of imported and locally-produced gas The Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will soon bring in a Uniform Gas Price Policy to ensure parity in the price of imported and locally-produced gas. "I have worked out the policy, but don't know whether it has to go to the Cabinet or not. The proposed policy will ensure one price for gas that is imported and that is produced here," Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily said here this evening.
If the price rise is approved, it would raise costs for power and fertiliser companies and other natural gas buyers such as city gas distributors The pricing of natural gas is set for a major revamp. An empowered group of ministers is likely to approve new policy guidelines based on the Rangarajan committee report; this would more-than-double the price of domestic gas sold by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India. If the price rise is approved, it would raise costs for power and fertiliser companies and other natural gas buyers such as city gas distributors.
90% Of The Fuel Is Used For Intermediate Purposes Every few days, Rajkumar Sharma, manager of a group housing society in Noida, trots off to the nearby petrol pump for his quota of diesel for the society’s power generators. But his back-of-an-envelope calculations have got more urgent of late. “Our average monthly consumption is around 400 litres, which means a monthly expenditure of Rs 20,000-22,000. I’m sure this will now go up by at least 10-15%.” The decision to deregulate diesel prices may have been something the government could no longer delay, but the immediate impact being felt by those who are part of the ‘diesel economy’ is there for all to see.
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.
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 blocks
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.
Even as the Union Cabinet gave its nod on Thursday to raise the cap on supply of subsidised LPG cylinders to nine cylinders from six per year per household, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) were gearing up to marginally raise the diesel prices, which could happen by Thursday itself. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), which met under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, authorised the OMCs to periodically raise the diesel prices in small quantum to cover up the Rs. 9.60 paise per litre loss being incurred by them.
