Global crude oil price of Indian Basket was US$ 61.86 per bbl on 28.04.2015

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 was US$ 61.86 per barrel (bbl) on 28.04.2015. This was lower than the price of US$ 62.67 per bbl on previous publishing day of 27.04.2015.

In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket decreased to Rs 3917.59 per bbl on 28.04.2015 as compared to Rs 3986.44 per bbl on 27.04.2015. Rupee closed stronger at Rs 63.33 per US$ on 28.04.2015 as against Rs 63.61 per US$ on 27.04.2015. The table below gives details in this regard:

Particulars	Unit	Price on April 28, 2015(Previous trading day i.e. 27.04.2015)	Pricing Fortnight for 16.04.2015 (March 28 to April 10, 2015)
Crude Oil (Indian Basket)	($/bbl)	61.86 (62.67)	54.92
Crude Oil (Indian Basket)	(Rs/bbl	3917.59 (3986.44)	3425.91
Exchange Rate	(Rs/$)	63.33 (63.61)	62.38

Daily Crude oil price- 29.04.2015

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Exploration of New Oil Reserves

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that India has 26 sedimentary basins. Prognosticated resources of the order of 28.1 billion tonnes (oil and oil equivalent of gas) of hydrocarbon have been estimated in 15 of these basins including deep water areas.

Details are as under:-

	ONGC	OIL	Pvt./JV
Number of Discoveries (2010-11 to 2014-15)	105	39	26
Crude Oil produced from the new discoveries in Million Metric Tonne in the year 2014-15	0.226	0.241	0.0017

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Impact of restrictive shipping norms on PSU refineries

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that as per the existing policy of Ministry of Shipping, all import contracts are to be finalised on Free on Board (FOB)/Free Alongside (FAS) basis in respect of Government owned/controlled cargoes on behalf of the Central Government Departments/ State Government Departments and public sector undertakings under them. For chartering of vessels, Oil PSUs float enquiry on global basis. If any Indian Ship Owner participates, then they have the Right of First Refusal. This procedure is adopted for all spot and time charter vessels. As per the Ministry of Shipping, the rationale of the policy for Govt. Departments and PSUs to import on FOB basis only is to ensure full utilisation of available Indian tonnage and to build national shipping tonnage.

Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has been taking up the matter with Ministry of Shipping for permitting Oil PSUs to import of crude oil on FOB as well as CFR basis. In response, Ministry of Shipping has conveyed that the oil PSUs may approach Ministry of Shipping for grant of No Objection Certificate for CFR imports on a case-to-case basis. Accordingly, OMCs are being allowed to import crude oil on CFR basis after obtaining the approval of Ministry of Shipping on case to case basis.

In the year 2005 and 2007, Government decided to allow oil PSUs, viz. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited to charter ships directly instead of routing their requirements through Ministry of Shipping.

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Laying of Gas Pipeline From Jagdishpur to Haldia

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that GAIL has been authorized by Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to lay natural gas pipeline from Jagdishpur (Uttar Pradesh) to Haldia (West Bengal). GAIL has planned to execute Jagdishpur-Haldia Pipeline project (JHPL) in phases. Phase-I of the pipeline project having a total length of 747 km and an estimated investment of Rs.3957 crore has been approved by GAIL Board for execution. The cadastral survey shall be completed by June 2015.

The proposed pipeline will pass through the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and cities of Phulpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Gaya, Patna and Barauni shall be connected under Phase-I. The pipeline is scheduled to be commissioned by 2018-19.

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Diverting Subsidy from Well-Off to Poor People

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that the Government has launched an initiative to encourage domestic LPG consumers, who can afford to pay the market price for LPG, to voluntarily surrender their LPG subsidy. This will enable population dependent on fossil fuels such as firewood etc. access LPG, a clean fuel, and a long way in improving their environmental and living conditions.

This Ministry has implemented a scheme known as CSR fund scheme for providing one time grant to BPL families for release of new LPG connection through Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitaran Yojana in the country. As per the scheme, the security deposit (upto Rs. 1600/-) for one cylinder and Pressure Regulator, for releasing the connection is met from CSR fund of 6 Oil Companies namely, Indian Oil Corporation Limited , Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Oil India Limited, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, GAIL (India) Limited.

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Targets for reduction of oil imports

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that in order to reduce import dependency on crude oil, Government has taken/is taking a number of initiative to increase domestic production of crude oil and to promote conservation of petroleum products. To accelerate the pace of exploration and production of oil and gas in the country, various steps have been/are being taken by the Government as under:-

i) Project for survey of about 1.5 million square Km. of unappraised area of the Indian Sedimentary Basins has been started through National Oil Companies to gather geo-scientific data for identifying prospective blocks.

ii) Re-assessment of hydrocarbon resources making use of geo-scientific data gathered over the past couple of decades has been initiated to get a better understanding of the prospectivity of Indian Sedimentary basins.

iii) A National Data Respository has been developed and is under trial now. It is a platform which will help access the geo-scientific data easily and help in carving out new hydrocarbon blocks.

iv) 52 new blocks with in-principle clearances from various agencies have been carved out for offer under the next round of bidding.

v) Policies for Exploration and Production are being reviewed for incentivizing and accelerating E&P activities.

vi) A Policy for non-exclusive multi-client speculative survey for assessment of unexplored sedimentary basins is being implemented.

vii) A policy framework for relaxations, extensions and clarification at the development and production stage under the PSC regime to remove rigidities in timelines with a view to early monetization of hydrocarbon discoveries has been approved.

viii) Revision in domestic gas price, with provision for premium for difficult areas (deep water, ultra deep water and High Pressure, High Temperature areas) has been approved.

ix) Extension of 40% subsidy in North East Region to private companies operating in that region has been made.

x) Exploration for shale oil and gas by National Oil Companies has been taken up.

The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, has been given the mandate to promote conservation of petroleum products in the major sectors of economy like transport, industry, households and agriculture through direct technical assistance, R &D educational and training programmes and mass awareness campaigns. PCRA’s activities cover conservation of all energy sources, development, evaluation and commercialization of efficient equipment and additives, popularizing production of bio-fuels, environment protection etc.

PCRA has also initiated Star Labelling Programme for various equipments/ appliances consuming petroleum products such as LPG domestic Gas stoves, Diesel Monoset pumps and Diesel Generator Sets.

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Deviation from Standard tendering procedure by ONGC

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that ONGC has informed that Rig DDKG-1 was hired on assignment basis as an outcome of shortage of rigs in the market for drilling ultra-deep water acreages, after obtaining approvals from Executive Committee, Executive Purchase Committee and ONGC Board.

ONGC has further informed that the decision of hiring of this Rig DDKG-1 was taken in the light of its availability and also on account of pressing need to ensure completion of Minimum Work Programme (MWP) of drilling exploratory wells in the NELP Deep Water blocks as per the respective Production Sharing Contract (PSC) of the blocks signed with the Government of India. Non-completion of MWP would have made ONGC liable to pay the cost of Unfinished work programme/Liquidated damage as per the provisions of PSC.

ONGC has also stated that rig DDKG-1 was hired on assignment basis on such rates, terms and conditions that there was no loss to ONGC.

The alleged irregularity in hiring of the rig DDKG-1 as observed by C&AG is being examined by the Government and based on the outcome of the examination, appropriate action will be taken in the matter.

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Policy on Testing Requirements for discoveries in NELP blocks

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today approved a clear policy on testing requirements for discoveries made under New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP) Blocks. The policy will settle the long pending issue with regards to 12 discoveries in five blocks pertaining to ONGC (six discoveries) and Reliance Industries (six discoveries) but will also establish a clear policy for the future. The policy will also help in bringing out transparency and uniformity in decision making as against case by case approach in the past.

The approval given by CCEA would provide a way forward for development of these 12 discoveries with associated gas reserves of around 90 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM) which would be valued at over Rs.one lakh crore at the current gas price of US $ 4.66 / Million British Thermal Unit (mmbtu) on Gross Calorific Value (GCV).

The policy approved by CCEA allows the contractors to choose one of the following three options with regards to discoveries which are stuck on account of testing requirement:

• Relinquish the blocks

• Develop the discoveries after conducting Drill Stem Test (DST) with 50 percent cost of DST being disallowed as penalty for not conducting the test on time. The cost recovery for carrying out DST would be capped at US $ 15 million.

• Develop the discoveries without conducting DST in a ring fenced manner.

If the contractor does not opt for any one of these options suggested above within 60 days of the CCEA approval then the area encompassing these discoveries shall automatically be relinquished.

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