Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) - the fuel that helps aeroplanes fly - was hiked by Rs 2,258.54 per kilolitre, or 2 per cent, to Rs 1,12,924.83 per kl in the national capital, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers.
The stance won’t exactly please the Americans. However, it’s no more opportunistic than Europe continuing to buy Russian gas more than a month into President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The government is identifying areas with low to medium heating requirements where such a shift is possible. Activities in domestic and commercial consumer sectors such as cooking and transportation, and solarising agricultural pumps are areas where the maximum focus is expected.
The retailers are raising prices to bridge under-recoveries that are estimated to have risen to Rs 20-22 when global benchmark oil, Brent, hit $139 per barrel on March 7.
In a proposal sent to the petroleum ministry for consultation, Niti Aayog has recommended setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for exploration, which will be equally funded by the government and state-run oil and gas companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
"Matter requires consideration. Till the next date of listing, there shall be stay of the impugned order of 29 March 2022," the high court after considering the plea made by BSES Rajdhani Power that if reallocation is implemented, 23% of the populace of the National Capital would be deprived of power in the next 24 hours.
Imported coal prices have soared over 200% to $203 a tonne against $60 per tonne last March. TPC and AEML are expected to start factoring in FAC in the monthly bills.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Tuesday defended the 137-day hiatus in fuel price revision, saying the disruption in supply chains and the resultant increase in global oil prices due to the war in Ukraine was a "couple of weeks" phenomenon.
In an emailed response, a Nayara Energy spokesperson said: "The industry had not implemented a price hike at retail fuel stations since November 2021 (till last week). Since the beginning of the year, oil companies have been absorbing the impact of soaring international crude prices ($80 to $110+) resulting in a significant drop in margins." The spokesperson said while the company continued its retail operations, it was exploring several options such as viable fuel pricing to arrive at a sustainable solution.
Prices had been on a freeze since November 4 ahead of the assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab -- a period during which the cost of raw material (crude oil) soared by about USD 30 per barrel.
ONGC Videsh, overseas arm of the state-run explorer, has a 20% stake in the Sakhalin-1 project in Siberia and is responsible for sale of its share of oil from the project. The company didn't receive any bid for its tender to sell 700,000 barrels of oil from Sakhalin-1 two weeks ago.
The price of LNG in the spot market jumped from $6 per million metric British thermal unit (mmbtu) in January 2021 to $35 this January, and it has since been trading in the $30-38 range. The Japan-Korea-Marker, the Asian spot benchmark, was last trading around $34 per mmbtu. The last time the price was close to this was in 2014, when spot LNG had hit $22 per mmbtu.
About 17 GW of imported coal-based plants are non-operational because of high prices that have made it unviable at the tariffs available to them. This is putting pressure on domestic demand for coal and leading to low stocks of the fuel.
Petrol and diesel prices have risen by a cumulative Rs 3.7-3.75 per litre since Monday. Oil marketing companies started raising prices from Tuesday to reduce the difference between domestic and international rates. Prices are likely to go much higher in the coming days as companies seek to align domestic retail rates with international prices that have gone through the roof.
Petrol costs Rs 104.90 and diesel costs Rs 95.00 in Chennai, whereas petrol costs Rs 108.53 and diesel costs Rs 93.57 in Kolkata.
The minister said that he has been making a pitch for making India self-reliant since 2004, "with which, we need to make our own fuel," while laying stress on the need for developing indigenous energy generation capabilities.
Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 98.61 per litre as against Rs 97.81 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 89.07 per litre to Rs 89.87. The four hikes come after a pause of nearly four-and-half-months.
Indian oil companies could see an impairment in the value of upstream investments in Russia and a decline in the cash flows from these assets going ahead, it said in a note on Thursday.
The increase comes on the heels of fuel hike by retailers. Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each for the second day in a row as retailers buckled to crude pain.
In Delhi, a litre will now cost you Rs 97.01 per litre as against 96.21 earlier while diesel sees a jump to Rs 88.27 a litre from Rs 86.67, according to state-owned fuel retailers.
The final six also included Adani Group, Canadian pension fund CPP Investment Board (CPPIB), ArcelorMittal and Australia's infra-focussed fund Macquarie but none of the four submitted a formal offer on March 15, the deadline for the bid.
India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, ships in about 85% of its oil needs from overseas markets.
Petrol pump sales have jumped by a fifth this month after bulk users like bus fleet operators and malls queued up at petrol bunks to buy fuel rather than the usual practice of ordering directly from oil companies, widening the losses of retailers.
Chief Minister of Assam has positively indicated for equally dividing the proceeds of Petroleum and Oil exploration and extraction between the two states in sectors A, B & C in the Disputed Area Belt (DAB) area, said Nagaland governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi. He also expressed for continuation in the steps, seeking the cooperation of the Government of India and the Government of Assam for resolving the matter.
According to commodities data and analytics firm Kpler, India's import of crude oil from Russia in March this year so far is nearly four times higher when compared with the corresponding period of last year.
Iran used to be India's second largest oil supplier but New Delhi had to halt imports after the former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed sanctions on its oil exports.
New Delhi faces criticism from the West for its long-standing political and security ties with Moscow, with some saying that engaging in business with Russia will help fund its war. India has urged an end to the violence in Ukraine but abstained from voting against Russia.
The group, led by Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, has held preliminary talks on a range of potential cooperation and joint investment opportunities with Saudi Aramco and the country’s Public Investment Fund, according to the people. It has discussed the idea of buying part of the PIF’s stake in Aramco, the people said.
India's crude imports rose in February to 4.86 million barrels per day (bpd), their highest since December 2020, preliminary data from trade sources showed, as refiners cranked up runs to meet increasing demand on better refining margins.
Antelopus, backed by private equity firms, Oak tree Capital and ICE Canyon Capital has also launched an open offer to buy as much as 26 percent stake from public shareholders of the company.
Indian Oil purchased 3 million barrels of Russian oil a few days ago. All purchases have been made from traders in the spot market, with expected delivery in May-June. These purchases are unlikely to face any payment trouble as the sellers are non-Russian entities.
The company took the decision in a meeting on Wednesday night to halve the diesel supply from Thursday, the executives told ET on condition of anonymity.
Rising commodity prices and sanctions on Russia "are expected to appreciably depress global economic growth" and impact inflation, said the Paris-based IEA, offering a bleak picture of undersupply and uncertainty for the oil market.
Companies would make the move in a day or two after they achieve clarity on insurance, freight and payment for the Russian oil in view of the Western sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the people cited earlier said.
India has not supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine. New Delhi has consistently asked all stakeholders to resolve differences through dialogue. It has, however, abstained in all United Nations resolutions against Russia.
For India, the fall in oil prices is good news as it will lower the import bill of the world's third-biggest oil importer.
The Aayog has sent its gas price reform proposal to the petroleum ministry for consultation. It also wants natural gas included in the ambit of the goods and services tax (GST), said the people.
The original deadline for submission of bids was August 31, 2021. However, this was postponed to October 29, 2021. The start was again put off to February 1, 2022 and closing slated for March 15, 2022.
He was selected for the post of chairman and managing director ahead of two directors on the Oil India board and another executive director of the company.
Some western allies have encouraged India to condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine, after New Delhi abstained from voting against Moscow, a long-standing arms supplier, at the United Nations.
The domestic retail rates of petrol and diesel have remained unaltered since the beginning of November. Oil marketing companies are widely expected to raise prices now since the state elections, a key hurdle to price revision, have concluded.
Crude oil prices soared to $139 per barrel on Monday after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US and European allies are considering banning the import of oil from Russia. Prices eased a bit after Germany, the biggest consumer of Russian crude in Europe, rejected any such plan.
Oil prices spiked to their highest levels since 2008 on Monday after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington and European allies were considering banning Russian oil imports.
Delay in the Iranian nuclear deal, which can help lift sanctions against the Islamic Republic and get its oil flowing back to the global market, also added to the nervousness in the market. After touching $139 per barrel in early trade, the highest since 2008, crude fell to around $130 per barrel where it mostly stayed during the day.
Oil cargoes were assigned by Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to ONGC Videsh and France's Maurel & Prom, a partner in another Venezuelan joint venture, for debt payment, Reuters reported earlier this month. Any transfer would require U.S. approval.
The government late last month refunded about Rs 7,900 crore it had collected from selling residual shares of the British firm in its erstwhile India unit, seizing dividend and withholding tax refunds, to settle an eight-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's reputation as an investment destination.
It is widely expected that the OMCs will revise the current prices on or after March 7, which is the last day of voting in the ongoing state assembly elections. However, an excise duty cut may dampen the impact on petrol and diesel prices to an extent, but not entirely.