The Supreme Court has stayed all proceedings in various high courts against moves to decontrol diesel, clearing a big hurdle in the implementation of the liberal fuel policy, which the government s

Cairn India has written to the oil ministry stating that a large portion of its KG basin block is not conducive for exploration as the cabinet committee on investment (CCI) retained ‘No Go’ restrictions on the middle part of the diagonally square block.

The CCI had earlier this year lifted the defence ministry's ‘No Go’ restrictions on just a portion of its KG-OSN-2009/3 block.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre on the Tamil Nadu government’s writ petition challenging the Centre’s decision to reduce allocation of kerosene to the State by 55 per cent from June 2011, from 65,140 kilo litres to 29,060 KL.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices Vikramajit Sen and Kurian Joseph issued notice after hearing Additional Advocate General Subramonium Prasad, appearing for Tamil Nadu.

Domestic gas prices may be fixed at $2 lower than the $8.8-per-unit price discovered by the Rangarajan commitee constituted to suggest changes in the production-sharing contract and future domestic gas-pricing mechanism.

Sources said the oil ministry agreed to the basic principle of gas pricing suggested by the panel, but wants it to be modified slighty to also take into account gas prices in countries such as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Nigeria that account for a major portion of India's liquified natural gas imports.

The fertiliser ministry, in a note to the EGoM on domestic natural gas pricing, suggested that gas should not be priced more than $6 mmBtu.

The Rangarajan committee report was facing flak from the finance, power and fertiliser ministries over its recommendations on pricing

The fate of the Rangarajan Committee's recommendations is hanging in the balance after the postponement of a meeting of empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on natural gas. Not only does there appear to be no meeting ground on the issue of a pricing formula proposed by the committee, the petroleum ministry wants another committee headed by Vijay Kelkar to look into the other major recommendation of moving to the revenue sharing model in exploration and production.

Draft of shale gas policy has been sent for inter-ministerial consultation-to ministry of finance, environment, law & planning commission. As the government is trying to finalise a shale gas policy, it wants to build in environmental safeguards into the overall framework.

The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is engaged in extensive consultations with the environment ministry to ensure that once the actual work starts there are no glitches. According to an official close to the development, the draft of shale gas policy has been sent for inter-ministerial consultation—to the ministry of finance, environment, law and planning commission.

Rs 60,352-cr impact on power, urea makers; FinMin comes up with its own formula

Even before an empowered group of ministers starts deliberating on a revision in natural gas prices, the finance, power and fertiliser ministries have raised a red flag on the recommendations of the Rangarajan panel. Only the Planning Commission seems to be in agreement with the committee’s proposal to use a proposed formula as “an interim or transitional solution” till March 2017.

Govt’s Fertilizer Subsidy Bill Will Go Up By 10K Cr If Ranga Panel’s Formula Gets Nod

Power tariff from gas-fired plants could jump by Re 1 per unit and the government’s annual fertilizer subsidy would rise by Rs 10,000 crore if the price of fuel pumped from domestic fields is doubled to $8.8 per unit in line with the formula suggested by a committee headed by PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan, the ministries of finance, power and fertilizer have said.