NEW DELHI: The government plans to tweak the system of calculating fuel subsidies to make ONGC’s public offer more attractive for investors. It plans to make subsidy sharing more predictable and transparent so that analysts can properly assess the ONGC’s earnings outlook.
Currently they are unable to assess the amount and the timing of the huge subsidy payout. This diminishes the interest of top institutions in the stock.
The oil ministry may soon approach the Cabinet to overhaul the fuel pricing system to incorporate some of the observations of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which recently submitted a report on the matter.
The pricing system has a direct impact on ONGC, which shares a part of the cost of selling diesel, kerosene and cooking gas below market rates. Officials said after paying subsidy in the form of discounts to state refiners, ONGC was able to charge a net price of only $40.97 per barrel in the last fiscal year although the market price was about $106. This may rise to $60, which is close to the industry’s demand of $65.
“The move to have an explicit policy for subsidy sharing will help in realising better value for ONGC’s shares,” a source involved in the discussions said. The government has plans to raise about Rs 18,000 crore through from sale of its 5% stake in ONGC this year.
In its report released last week, the CAG said that despite recommendations by several expert panels since 2006, the government did not frame an “explicit and transparent” policy for funding oil subsidies. The report highlights the fact that state firm assume the payment of customs duty in pricing petrol and diesel although they do not pay the duty on the crude oil they import.
The oil ministry, which is examining the report, is of firm belief that without the duty protection state-run refineries would succumb to private competition.
“The CAG report has not asked to stop the duty protection. It has merely pointed out that the revenues thus generated, should have been effectively reinvested in technology upgradation. We will ensure that OMCs make investments in refinery upgradation and improve their gross refinery margins,” an oil ministry source said.
“The duty protection is bare minimum for vintage refineries, which already suffer due to disadvantageous locations. Anyway, the duty protection has already been reduced from 10% in 2002 to 2.5% in 2006. They need protection as OMCs also make some subsidy contribution and often bear interest burden for delays in getting government’s subsidy contributions,” the source said.
The NDA government is keen to cut subsidies on kerosene and cooking gas without raising prices.
“The government may reduce supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinders from 12 to nine per household annually. The previous government had raised the number to 12 to garner political mileage during the general elections,” the source said. The government is also planning to launch campaigns asking affluent classes to voluntarily purchase cooking gas cylinders at market rates. Other plan is to revive the direct cash transfer of cooking gas and kerosene subsidies to poor with better planning, sources said.
(Source: The Economic Times, July 23, 2014)
OIL REGULATOR TO COMPLETE STUDY ON GAS MKT MARGIN BY DEC: GOVT
New Delhi: After grappling with the issue for two years, the Oil Ministry had on November 21, 2013, ordered that the margin to be charged, over and above the gas sale price, should be fixed between the seller and buyers in all sectors other than urea and LPG. “Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has decided that Government needs to regulate the marketing margin for supply of domestic gas to urea and LPG producers, as the same has implications on Government subsidy outgo.
“In all other cases, the marketing margin should be decided by buyer and seller mutually,” he said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. The Ministry had on November 21, 2013 asked the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) to determine the margin for supply of domestic gas to urea and LPG producers through its independent process.
“The PNGRB has intimated that the entire study on determination of marketing margin is expected to be completed by December, 2014,” Pradhan said. The rates determined by the PNGRB would thereafter be notified by the Government. For users other than urea and LPG plants, the oil ministry had ruled that any complaints about the exercise of monopoly power should be addressed to the PNGRB and/or the Competition Commission of India, he said.
Presently, marketing margins charged by producers and sellers of gas range from 11 cents to 20 cents per million British thermal units (mmBtu). RIL charged 13.5 cents per mmBtu as marketing margin over and above the government-set price of $4.205 for KG-D6 gas for the first five years of production ended March 31.
For the financial year that began on April 1, it proposed to move from charging the margin on net calorific value (NCV) basis to gross calorific value (GCV) basis as the new price formulation uses inputs based on GCV. The change would result in marketing margins rising by 11 per cent, a move opposed by the 16 urea making plants – the only customers of KG-D6 gas presently.
Fertiliser firms want to pay 12.2 cents if RIL was to change the pricing methodology from NCV to GCV during the time PNGRB takes to decide on the marketing margin. “A representation from the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers was received in the Ministry,” he said without giving details of the representation.
Pradhan also said that the Government is studying CAG’s observation that State-owned oil firms overcharged customers by Rs 26,626 crore in five years. In its audit report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) observed that state-owned oil firms overcharged customers by Rs 26,626 crore in five years by charging notional levies like customs duty on fuel they sold.
Responding to a query on the issue, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha that the “subject is being studied by the Government”.
(Source: Pioneer July 23, 2014)
INDIA CUTS IRAN OIL TO LESS THAN 6% OF IMPORTS
New Delhi: India has reduced its reliance on Iran for its oil needs to less than 6% of imports, as it raised imports from countries such as Colombia and Mexico.
India imported 11 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in the year ending 31 March 2014, down from 13.14 million tonnes in the previous fiscal, officials said.
The imports from Iran made up for 5.81% of the nation’s oil import needs in 2013-14, down from 7.11% in the previous year. India has steadily cut imports from Iran as US and Western sanctions blocked payment channels and crippled shipping routes.
It imported 21.20 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2009-10, which was reduced to 18.50 million tonnes in 2010-11 and 18.11 million tonnes in 2011-12. Imports from Iran were reduced to 13.14 million tonnes in 2012-13, the year when the US had tightened the screws on Iran.
People with knowledge of the matter said Iran was India’s second biggest supplier, behind Saudi Arabia, up to 2010-11 but was relegated to 6th place in 2013-14. Saudi continues to be the biggest supplier, selling 38.18 million tonnes of oil or 20.18% of India’s total oil imports in 2013-14.
India had imported 189.24 million tonnes of crude oil from a total of 35 countries. Iraq is its second biggest supplier at 24.63 million tonnes, followed by Kuwait with 20.35 million tonnes of supplies. Nigeria is the fourth largest supplier at 16.36 million tonnes, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 13.98 million tonnes.
The people said India is diversifying its crude purchases, tapping new nations in Latin America for supplies. Imports from Colombia have been more than doubled to 6.31 million tonnes in 2013-14 from 2.80 million tonnes in the previous year.
In 2011-12, Colombia gave less than one million tonnes of oil to India. Similarly, supplies from Mexico have been raised by almost one million tonnes to 4.94 million tonnes.
The people said the Middle-East contributed 61% (115.86 million tonnes) of India’s oil while Latin America has emerged as its second-biggest supplier region, supplying 31.73 million tonnes.
Africa provided 30.39 million tonnes of oil in 2013-14.
In the current fiscal, India will import 188.2 million tonnes of oil, marginally lower than 189.24 million tonnes in the previous fiscal. About 35.5 million tonnes will come from domestic fields to meeting an estimated fuel demand of 223.7 million tonnes in 2014-15, the people said.
(Source: Mint July 23, 2014)
DRAFT ONGC DIDN’T FOLLOW MINIMUM WORK PROGRAMME IN KG BASIN: DGH
NEW DELHI: The oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has said that ONGC did not adhere to the minimum work programme, while exploring the offshore deepwater block (KG-DWN-98/2) in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin. The block is expected to commence output from 2017.
The regulator has told the petroleum ministry that ONGC has “drilled 15 less wells” in the block between 2006 and 2014.
The block was awarded in the first round of auction under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) regime. The adjacent block to PSU’s KG-D6, operated by RIL, is producing hydrocarbon since 2009.
“ONGC has categorised drilling of exploratory and appraisal wells into two categories — firm and to mature. However, the terminologies do not appear in the production-sharing contract (PSC),” a petroleum ministry official told FE.
Contacted, a director on the board of ONGC said, “We are confident that we have completed the minimum work programme in full. We have submitted the declaration of commerciality (DoC), which is being reviewed by DGH.”
Interestingly, the management committee of the block, comprising officials from the ministry, DGH and the contractor, reviewed all the locations for drilling without any distinction of “firm” or “to mature” categories.
In 2008-09, the explorer could not drill any wells due to acute shortage of deep water rigs worldwide and the firm applied for rig holiday policy. The petroleum ministry granted extension of Rig Holiday Policy from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2010, to complete drilling of wells. But, ONGC could not complete all the requisite drilling during this period and sought further extension of rig holiday policy.
In June 2012, government extended the exploration period for the block KG-DWN-98/2 up to December 29, 2013, for drilling appraisal wells.
Moreover, ONGC has sought permission to continue with exploratory and appraisal drilling during the intervening period between submission of DoC and approval of field development programme (FDP).
ONGC has appointed Norwegian oil and gas industry service provider Aker Solutions to chart out the field development plan for the KG basin block. The explorer is initially developing the northern area of the KG basin block.
At peak production, which is generally achieved after three-four years of the fields put under production, the acreages are expected to produce 27-metric standard cubic metre per day (mmscmd) of gas and 75,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). Asked if not drilling the wells would impact production timelines, the ministry official said it is pre-mature to reach such a conclusion. “The ministry wants ONGC to commence production from the KG basin block by 2017,” the official added. On December 26, 2013, ONGC hade submitted the revised DoC, which is under examination with the DGH.
The implementation of the new gas-pricing regime from October 1 is vital for commencing production from the block. This block may not be viable at the current gas price of $4.2/mBtu.
(Source: The Financial Express, July 23, 2014)
REGULATORY BILL MAY BE TAKEN UP IN WINTER SESSION
NEW DELHI: The government is set to revive an initiative of its predecessor to make regulators of key sectors such as power, telecommunications and railways accountable to Parliament, a move that is expected to boost private investment in infrastructure.
Planning minister Rao Inderjit Singh has asked the infrastructure division of the Planning Commission to finalise the Draft Regulatory Reform Bill, 2013 by incorporating the views of different ministries, a senior government official told ET on condition of anonymity. The minister is keen to introduce the Bill in the winter session to revive investor confidence as soon as possible, the official added.
The draft Bill, if approved, will be applicable to sectors including oil & gas, coal, internet, broadcasting & cable television, posts, airports, ports, waterways, mass rapid transit system, highways, water supply and sanitation.
In 2009, the Congress-led UPA government had mooted a law to monitor the functioning of a large number of regulatory authorities in the country. The government’s aim was to ensure orderly development of infrastructure services, enable competition and protect the interest of consumers through the regulators while securing access to affordable and quality infrastructure.
However, the Bill could not see the light of day during the term of the UPA government.
Last week, admitting that the regulatory commissions in the country were accountable to neither government nor Parliament, Singh said in Parliament, “The present legal framework on regulatory reforms needs some rethinking. Regulatory commissions in different sectors follow very divergent practices and require re-examination to have a uniform framework. Our government will undertake regulatory reforms in order to make them effective and answerable.”
The UPA government had set a target of $1-trillion investment in infrastructure during the 12th Five-year Plan (2012-17), half of which has to come from private players. The Regulatory Reform Bill is expected to draw private players that have been wary of investing in infrastructure development for want of transparency.
The key provisions of the draft Bill include an institutional framework for regulatory commissions, their role and functions, accountability to the legislature and interface with the markets and the people. Besides, their overall functioning would be subject to scrutiny by Parliament on a yearly basis and their decision could be challenged before the appellate authority.
(Source: The Economic Times, July 23, 2014)
GOVT TO SET UP SEZ FOR CHEMICAL, PETROCHEMICAL FEEDSTOCK COMPLEX ABROAD
MUMBAI: The department of chemicals and petrochemicals proposes to set up chemical and petrochemical complex in overseas countries to ensure the availability of primary chemicals raw materials exclusively for the Indian companies.
The feedstock complex will be set in a special economic zone to be set up by Indian government in these countries , part of which will be utilised for establishing the petrochemical and chemicals feedstock.
According to officials, two countries that have been identified for this purpose are Iran and Myanmar with whom it proposes to start the dialogue for setting up such chemical feedstock complexes . According to officials, it will be a win win for both countries, one where the feedstock complex will come up and another which will import these basic raw material chemicals.
This endeavour is aimed at making India a export hub for processed and finished chemicals and not producer of basic chemicals. Thus for Iran and mayanmar, it will bring in foreign investment and employment while for India a sustainable source of raw material . This way the oil import bill will also come down as crude is the basic source of all chemicals which are generated in the process of refining of crude oil as by products.
Meanwhile, Iran on the other hand has evinced interest to invest in the PCPIRs (Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Regions) zone in Andhra Pradesh. This project suffered a setback as prior land allocation could not be made in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh besides facing environmental hurdles.
However the government of Andhra Pradesh both bifurcation of Telengana has revived the project and had sought foreign investment as well. The petrochemical complex in which Iran has shown interest is proposed to be set up by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation ( HPCL)
The special delineated investments in PCPIRs (Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Regions) have been set up in in Dahej (Gujarat), Visakhapatnam and Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), Paradip (Odisha), and Cuddalore and Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu).
Further the ministry proposes to constitute four steering committees with representation from ministries like Finance, Petroleum, Railways, Urban Development and Transport. These committees will boost investments in these regions to the tune of Rs. 7.2 lakh-crore in which the government has invested Rs 1.47 lakh crore so far.
The department has framed the National Chemical Policy for the first time owing to emerging challenges. Officials explained that the potential of the chemical sector is huge. A conservative estimate puts the growth rate at 11%, and a turnover of $224 billion by 2017. The plan envisages India to be a hub for research and development for the subcontinent and neighbouring countries.
(Source: Business Standard, July 23, 2014)
IDLE DABHOL POWER PLANT MAY BE PUT ON THE BLOCK
Mumbai: Short of gas and deep in debt, the Dabhol power station, India’s largest gas-based power plant operated by Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt. Ltd (RGPPL) on coastal Maharashtra, may finally be put on the block. With its sole customer refusing to pay dues, promoters withdrawing staff and banks set to call it a loan gone bad, the future seems bleak for the power station which has already gone through death and resurrection once.
The 1,940 megawatt (MW) plant is idle for the last one year, thanks to a crippling shortage of domestically produced gas. Even if gas becomes available later, likely at a higher price, Mahavitaran, the state government-owned power distributor, will not be able to buy costlier power. Using imported liquefied natural gas is not an option either, since such power would be even more costly.
When asked if the company would sell the project, an RGPPL spokesman replied in an email: “Since the project beneficiaries (Mahavitaran) do not see any synergy at this stage and have disputed payment of even the fixed costs, the company is in no position to continue with its operation and may eventually have to look for distress measures due to lack of funds and the stakeholders may have to explore all options.”
State-owned entities NTPC Ltd and GAIL (India) Ltd hold 30% each in RGPPL. The rest is owned by MSEB Holding Co. Ltd. and financial institutions. As per RGPPL’s contract with Mahavitaran, the latter was expected to buy 95% of the power produced at Dabhol. But it has refused to buy or pay dues, citing high costs.
The RGPPL spokesman said: “If no financial support is forthcoming urgently, the company will have no option but to demobilize its work force, especially that associated with the power business.”
There are about 550 employees at the power plant, of which about 75 are deputed from NTPC. The company has started pulling them out, and has already moved about 30 employees to other NTPC plants. About 40 employees are on deputation from GAIL. The rest were recruited through labour contractors, who have been asked by the company to look for other options.
Mahavitaran and RGPPL are fighting a legal battle over the former’s refusal to pay fixed costs. Typically, power tariff consists of two components: fixed costs such as the cost of machinery, debt servicing and salaries, and variable costs, which mainly consist of the cost of fuel.
Lenders with stakes in RGPPL include IDBI Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, State Bank of India Ltd and Canara Bank Ltd. Promoters and lenders had jointly invested `2,930 crore to revive the project and financial institutions had lent `8,500 crore.
Ashwini Chitnis, senior research associate at Pune-based energy policy advocacy the Prayas Energy Group, said: “If indeed the RGPPL plant is shut down, it will lead to waste of thousands of crores of public money. More importantly, this should once again highlight the need for careful long-term planning in the sector, especially for generation projects and fuel supplies. Otherwise, such failures and/or bailouts will be inevitable in the future.”
Ashok Pendse, a power sector analyst, said: “Even if some miracle happens and the project starts getting domestic gas, there is no hope of revival of this project as the Rangarajan committee has recommended gas price should be doubled from $4.20 per metric million British thermal unit (mmBtu) to $8.40 per mmBtu. And if this recommendation is accepted, the price of power produced from the plant will be unviable for Mahavitaran.”
When coal-based power is available at `2.50-3 per unit, Mahavitaran has no reason to buy Dabhol power at `7 or `8 per unit, Pendse said.
The Dabhol power project was promoted by Texas-based energy company Enron Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The project shut down after the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), the predecessor of Mahavitaran, refused to buy power. MSEB had said the station was not producing power from gas as promised and using costly naphtha instead.
In 2005, NTPC and RGPPL came together to revive the project. They settled the claims of General Electric Co. and Bechtel who were minority partners in the Dabhol power project. Ironically, the project started producing power once again in 2006, using naphtha, since at that time, Maharashtra was facing a shortage of 4,500MW.
(Source: Mint July 23, 2014)
MOZAMBIQUE TO FUEL BPCL’S GAS PLANS
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is betting big on its overseas exploration business where Mozambique and Brazil, in particular, have been happy hunting grounds.
“We have had good discoveries in these countries and Mozambique has an opportunity to be the third largest LNG producing nation in the world. Needless to add, this is good news for us,” S Varadarajan, Chairman and Managing Director of BPCL, told Business Line .
Bharat PetroResources Ltd (BPRL), the exploratory arm of BPCL, has a 10 per cent stake in Mozambique’s Rovuma basin. The chief operator here is Anadarko of the US and the other equity partners include Mitsui and OVL-Oil India. Gas is expected to flow by the end of 2018-19 and this will mark an important chapter in BPCL’s energy business.
“Buyers could be from Japan, China, (South) Korea and India, which are natural markets for gas,” Varadarajan says. BPCL as a buyer is also in talks with the consortium to explore the possibility of bringing some gas from Mozambique here.
“If everything goes well, the gas could be brought by us to India though BPCL will take a decision purely based on pricing economics,” he says. Eventually, it is up to the consortium to take a call based on what it perceives is the best price on offer.
The upstream business has worked like a dream script for BPCL since the time it decided to take the plunge in 2003 and created BPRL. As Varadarajan says, there was a clear focus and strategy where the company earmarked a capital investment of $500 million (around Rs. 3,000 crore today) over five years. After all, it had its core business of refining and marketing to focus on back home in India.
The first step was to ensure good partners and this came in the form of Brazil’s Petrobras and Anadarko. “We also decided to focus on different geographies and not confine ourselves to just one. Fortunately, we took positions in Brazil, Mozambique, Indonesia, Australia, India and West Asia,” Varadarajan says.
The next important decision was to take just 10-20 per cent stakes rather than blow up big bucks in all these regions. Investments have also been focused on the early exploration stage rather than the more expensive end stage of development.
“This has been the core of our strategy where some luck played a role along with taking the right decisions, being in the right place at the right time and, finally, landing up with the right partner,” Varadarajan says.
North America has been in the news for a while now with its shale gas potential which could catapult the country into the big league over the next three years.
The BPCL chief believes North America is interesting from an investment perspective and there are a couple of opportunities which the company is looking at.
Whether the pricing in the US market will influence gas pricing in this part of the world remains to be seen.
As Varadarajan says, if the US is going to be a net exporter, it could change the dynamics of the energy market and the impact on oil/gas pricing will be interesting.
“Oil producers recognise these facts and the supply-demand positions will be something we need to wait and watch as we move along,” he adds. To that extent, BPCL is fortunate to have both Mozambique and Brazil in its kitty and will decide the quantum of investments going forward.
(Source: Business Line July 23, 2014)
ONGC TO ACCELERATE KG BASIN GAS DISCOVERIES’ DEVELOPMENT
New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will fast-track development of natural gas discoveries in its Krishna Godavari basin block with first gas planned no later than 1 April, 2018.
ONGC has made 11 oil and gas discoveries in the Block KG-DWN-98/2, which sits next to Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 Block and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp’s Deendayal gas field.
The block is divided into a Northern Discovery Area (NDA) and Southern Discovery Area (SDA).
It plans to invest $9 billion in producing from discoveries in NDA, a company official said here.
ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf recently held an on-site review meeting of Block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 and fixed 1 April, 2018 as date for start of production. ‘The company’s internal assessment was that gas can start flowing from the block only in 2021-22 but the Chairman wanted the development to be fast-tracked and it is now being planned for 2018,’ he said.
ONGC is looking at producing 2.5-3 million tonnes of oil per annum and 9-10 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from the Northern Development Area of KG-D5 block.
NDA holds an estimated 92.30 million tonnes of oil reserves and 97.568 billion cubic metres of inplace gas reserves spread over seven fields. The official said ONGC has submitted to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) a Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) for the oil find in the NDA and a detailed field development plan will be submitted by year end.
‘The challenge now is to get the FDP approved and award contracts within 2015,’ he said. ONGC bought 90 per cent interest in Block KG-DWN-98/2 from Cairn Energy India Ltd in 2005. Cairn still holds 10 per cent in the block. Before selling most of its stake and giving away operatorship of the block, Cairn made four discoveries in the area — Padmavati, Kanakdurga, N-1 and R-1 (Annapurna).
Subsequently, ONGC made six significant discoveries — E-1, A1, U1, W1, D-1 and KT-1 in NDA and the first ultra-deepwater discovery UD-1 at a record depth of 2,841 metres.
The NDA comprises discoveries like Padmawati, Kanadurga, D, E, U, A, while the ultra deepsea UD find lies in SDA. ONGC, the official said, is looking at producing oil and gas from NDA using a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit. An investment plan for UD-1 will be submitted separately, he added.
(Source: Millennium Post July 23, 2014)
NHRC SENDS NOTICES, SEEKS REPORT FROM HPCL, STATES
New Delhi: Taking note of reports that heavy smoke from the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Bathinda is causing health problems for residents of nearby villages in Punjab as well as Haryana, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday sent notices to the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and governments of both states. Chief secretaries of the states and the chairman and managing director of HPCL have been directed to submit a detailed report on the issue within four weeks.
Observing that the state governments had failed to take prompt action to address problems of these villagers, the NHRC said, “The refinery is least bothered about the health hazards.”
As per reports appearing in English dailies, the refinery — a joint venture of state-owned HPCL and Mittal Energy Investment Private Limited (Singapore), located near Phullokhari village on the Bathinda-Dabwali road, 45km from Bathinda — is emitting heavy smoke and, therefore, causing asthma, cough, eye infections and allergic conditions to residents of 12 villages in Dabwali segment of Sirsa (Haryana).
The problem was highlighted as recently as June 20, when fire — the second time since the refinery opened in 2012 — broke out and caused a large explosion.
A panel of experts including those from the Punjab Pollution Control Board was recently constituted and took air samples from Kanakwal and also visited refineries in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Panipat (Haryana) and Mathura (UP). The panel is likely to table its report soon.
The Bathinda refinery is the first oil and gas project to be set up in Punjab, built by the publicprivate partnership company.
Mittal Energy and HPCL — in a joint venture, named HMEL — own 49% stake each in the refinery, while the rest is with financial institutions. When contacted, HMEL spokesperson Sangeetha Chaturvedi said the notice concerned the HPCL expressly, so she could not comment. She redirected HT to HPCL spokesperson Sushant Dhar, who said the matter concerned the HMEL that runs the refinery, so the HPCL as such could not respond. However, the HPCL would talk to the HMEL about it, he added.
(Source: Hindustan Times July 23, 2014)
GLOBAL CRUDE OIL PRICE OF INDIAN BASKET INCREASED TO US$ 105.86 PER BBL ON 18TH JULY, 2014
The international crude oil price of Indian Basket as computed/published today by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas went up to US$ 105.86 per barrel (bbl) on 18th July, 2014. This was higher than the price of US$ 105.24 per bbl on previous publishing day of 17th July, 2014. In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket increased to Rs 6386.53 per bbl on 18th July, 2014 as compared to Rs 6329.13 per bbl on 17th July, 2014. Rupee closed weaker at Rs 60.33 per US$ on 18th July, 2014 as against Rs 60.14 per US$ on 17th July, 2014.
(Source: Indian Oil & Gas July 23, 2014)
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