(PTI) State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Thursday walked away with all the seven oil and gas blocks on offer in the latest bid round that saw just eight bids coming in. ONGC signed contracts for the seven blocks at an event where Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other Ministry officials were also present. “These seven blocks are adding exploration acreage of 18,510 sq. km spread over three sedimentary basins of India and have a resource potential of approximately 33 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas,” he said. The latest licensing round for allowing companies to explore for…
Author: Aruna Sharma
(ET) After decades India’s government-owned banks are likely to change the way they lend. Since the 1970s, public sector banks have given out most working capital loans — required for day-to-day operations of a business — on the basis of net current assets of corporate borrowers, a flawed system that is believed to have resulted in over-funding to some and under-funding to others. The outdated practice may soon change, with the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India proposing a transition from an ‘asset-based lending’ model to ‘cashflow-based lending’ — a mechanism that, among other things, may reduce misuse of funds…
(FE) The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (UPPCL) on Thursday increased the electricity tariff to 66 paise per unit with effect from January 1. The sudden change is being attributed to the increase in the price of coal. According to sources, UPPCL decided to pass on the increase in the power purchase cost due to hike in coal prices to the consumers. It therefore hiked the energy cost from 04/paise to 66 paise per unit across various categories. This was done by invoking the fuel and power purchase cost adjustment (FPPCA) clause under the National Tariff Act. However, following a petition…
(ET) Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has further extended to January 17 the deadline to accept bids for its 64 small producing fields, its chairman said. The deadline has been extended on requests from some potential bidders, Chairman Shashi Shanker said. The original deadline was December 20, which was extended to January 3. ONGC had invited bids from private players in June for its 64 small fields, clubbed in 17 contract areas. The company has altered some tender conditions to encourage increased participation by potential bidders. ONGC wants private operator to bear all new costs and receive a share in the additional production…
(PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday facilitated disbursal of Rs 12,000 crore to 6 crore farmers in one go under the government’s flagship PM-Kisan scheme, taking the total amount transferred to about Rs 42,000 crore so far this fiscal. The Centre may be able to save about 40% of the budgeted Rs 75,000 crore as the total pay out under the scheme is seen at about Rs 45,000 crore in 2019-20. Without taking any name, Modi slammed West Bengal for not implementing the scheme in the state. He said that such petty politics has done great damage to the farming community. “I…
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) launched IMO-2020 compliant Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) at Visakhapatnam on 2nd January 2020 at the hands of Shri Mukesh Kumar Surana, Chairman & Managing Director in presence of Director – Refineries, Shri Vinod S Shenoy, Director – Marketing, Shri Rakesh Misri, Executive Director – Direct Sales, Shri Ajit Singh and other top officials. The first batch of VLSFO is already produced in Visakh Refinery of HPCL in early December 2019, ahead of the deadline of 1st January 2020. Shri Surana said that HPCL has always been in the forefront of providing cleaner and sustainable…
(PTI) State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has begun an exercise to shed excess cost at the Mumbai offshore oil and gas fields of Panna-Mukta whose control it regained after two and half decades and has already saved Rs 1 crore in the shipping cost. ONGC has changed the contract for bringing oil produced from the fields lying in the Arabian Sea to land, resulting in saving of about USD 5,000 per day, sources with direct knowledge of the development said. It is expecting an upside in production too after a re-appraisal.Sources said the previous operators, Shell India and Reliance,…
(News18) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah has started preparing for the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election by learning Bengali. Shah aims to learn Bangla so that the language doesn’t becomes a barrier while making strategies for the polls. He also plans to start his address during his campaign in the state with Bangla to connect in a better way with the public. He has appointed a teacher also for the same. Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee coined a slogan ‘Ma Mati Manush’ (Mother, Motherland and People) and in her recent addresses she strongly spoke…
(NDTV) Pakistan did not figure in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s New Year call list as he dialled the leaders of the neighbouring countries and highlighted India’s commitment to the “Neighbourhood First” policy. In his conversation with the leaders of Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal, PM Modi focused on the “vision of shared peace, security, prosperity and progress for all of India’s friends and partners in the region”, the government said in a statement. Less than a year ago, on February 14, a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed killed 40 paramilitary soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama.…
(PTI) The government has cancelled the allotment of a coal block for the power project in Jharkhand, as even after a decade of allotment no significant progress was made to operationalise it. The coal block was allotted in 2009, to Karanpura Energy Ltd — an SPV of erstwhile Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB). “It is noted that even after lapse of 10 years since allocation of the coal block (Mourya coal block), no significant progress has been made to operationalise the coal block,” the coal ministry said in a letter to the company.Due to long delays in development of coal block, show cause notices were served by the coal ministry to…