DY. PM TO RECEIVE INDIA’s FIRST
CONSIGNMENT OF CRUDE OIL FROM OVERSEAS ACQUISITIONS
NELP-IV
TO BE LAUNCHED TOMORROW
PARLIAMENTARY
CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE DISCUSS OIL SECURITY SCENARIO
The initiative to
address country’s oil security needs is fructifying with the receipt
of India’s first consignment of crude oil from equity oil abroad
on 15th May at Mangalore Port from the Greater Nile
Oil Project, Sudan in which ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) acquired
equity recently. Deputy Prime Minister Shri L.K. Advani, alongwith
Shri S.M. Krishna, Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri Ram Naik,
Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, his Minister of State
Shri Santosh Gangwar, and the Members of the Parliamentary Consultative
Committee attached to Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas,
will receive the shipment. Announcing this at the Parliamentary
Consultative Committee (PCC) meeting here today, Shri Naik said
that the event assumes great significance in view of the country’s
heavy import dependence and the strategic importance of uninterrupted
supplies of Petroleum products. OVL, the overseas arm of Oil &
Natural Gas Corporation, completed the transaction to acquire
25 per cent interest in the producing oil field on 12th
March, 2003 by making a net payment of US$ 670 million (Rs. 3,220
crore). This is against the Cabinet mandated price of US$ 750
million (Rs. 3,600 crore) as the revenue on oil sales from the
12 MMT per annum oil field started accruing to OVL from 1st
September 2002.
Shri Ram Naik also
informed the Members that after successful completion of three
rounds of competitive global bidding for oil and gas exploration
blocks, the fourth round under New Exploration Licensing Policy
(NELP-IV) will be launched on 8th May. He expressed
hope for good response to the offer in view of the recent discoveries
of hydrocarbons in the country. He also announced that the second
round of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) exploration blocks will be launched
on 23rd May under the new CBM policy which also has
investor-friendly and globally comparable liberal terms to attract
investments in line with the NELP.
Referring to the
efforts of Navratna Oil PSUs towards global presence, Shri
Ram Naik informed that Indian Oil’s wholly owned subsidiary, Lanka
IOC Private Limited has entered the marketing of petroleum products
in Sri Lanka. This is for the first time that an Indian oil company
would market auto-fuels outside India. The company took over on
19th February 2003 the first batch of 14 retail outlets
(RO) owned by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Limited. Lanka IOC
Private Limited completed the acquisition of 100 outlets by the
end of March 2003. In addition, the Company is in the process
of taking over additional 150 franchise ROs.
The Minister expected
further fall in international oil prices as the US has declared
war to be over in Iraq. This he said should bring more benefit
to the consumers as the fall in prices following commencement
of Iraq War led to the reduction in domestic prices of petrol
and diesel on two occasions by a rupee per litre each time w.e.f.
15th April & 27th April. One of the
major demands of the Truck Transporters who went on strike from
14th April was reduction in diesel prices in line with
fall in international crude prices. In fact to help end the strike,
Shri Naik requested the Oil Companies to pre-pone the revision
which was due from 1st May, 2003. The oil companies
have also been asked to examine the periodicity of revision of
fuel prices.
Enumerating the various
initiatives and events in the last three months after 6th
February PCC meeting, Shri Naik said that as many as 21 developments
of vital importance were piloted during this period. In addition
to those referred above, some of the major developments include
commissioning of IOC’s LPG bottling plant at Port Blair in the
Andaman & Nicobar Islands; number of LPG consumers crossing
7 crore mark making India second only to China; taking over the
Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals by ONGC; enhancement of
BPCL’s equity in Bina Refinery to facilitate setting up of the
project; introduction of Euro-II fuels in Ahmedabad, Agra, Pune,
Bangalore, Kanpur and Surat, etc. He also announced that a function
to give further momentum to Bina Refinery Project is being organised
on 26th May, when Dy. Prime Minister Shri L.K. Advani
will be the Chief Guest.
Shri Santosh Gangwar,
Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, also attended
the meeting alongwith Petroleum Secretary Shri B.K. Chaturvedi.
The CMDs of various oil PSUs, other senior officers of Petroleum
Ministry and Oil PSUs were also present during the meeting.
The following are
the Members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached
to the Ministry:
S/Shri Lal Bihari
Tiwari, Jaswant Singh Bishnoi, Dr. Laxminarayan Pandey Manibhai
R. Chaudhari, Prof. Rasa Singh Rawat, Shrichand Kriplani, Ram
Shakal, Ram Singh Kaswan, N.H. Diwathe, Kishan Singh Sangwan,
Col. B.R. Shandil, Nagmani, Jai Prakash, Dr. Sushil Kumar Indora,
Zora Singh Mann, K.K. Kaliappan, Kunwar Sarvaraj Singh, Prasanna
Acharaya, Lakshman Seth, Ram Sajiwan, G. Srinivasa Rao, Prakash
Paranjape, Ram Jeevan Singh, M.H. Gavit, Dr. Girija Vyas, Shibu
Soren, Tribhuwan Datt, Shyam Bihari Mishra, Daud Ahmad, Harpal
Singh Sathi, Smt. Preeneet Kaur and Ashok Kumar Singh Chandel
(All from Lok Sabha)
Prof. Ram Bakhsh
Singh Verma, Amar Singh, Ram Deo Bhandari, A. Vijaya Raghavan,
N.R. Dasari, Satish Pradhan, Oscar Fernandes, Rajubhai A. Parmar,
Dr. Arun Kumar Sharma, Prof. M.M. Agarwal, Rajkumar Dhoot and
Ram Nath Kobind (All from Rajya Sabha).
