Global crude oil price of Indian Basket was US$ 65.03 per bbl on 05.05.2015

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$ 65.03 per barrel (bbl) on 05.05.2015. This was higher than the price of US$ 63.61 per bbl on previous publishing day of 30.04.2015.

In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket increased to Rs 4130.71 per bbl on 05.05.2015 as compared to Rs 4044.32 per bbl on 30.04.2015. Rupee closed stronger at Rs 63.52 per US$ on 05.05.2015 as against Rs 63.58 per US$ on 30.04.2015. The table below gives details in this regard:

Particulars	Unit	Price on May 05,2015(Previous trading day i.e. 30.04.2015)	Pricing Fortnight for 01.05.2015 (April 11 to April 28, 2015)
Crude Oil (Indian Basket)	($/bbl)	65.03 (63.61)	60.30
Crude Oil (Indian Basket)	(Rs/bbl	4130.71 (4044.32)	3789.86
Exchange Rate	(Rs/$)	63.52 (63.58)	62.85

Daily Crude oil price- 06.05.2015

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Restricting Subsidy on Kerosene to Unelectrified Households

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has informed that as per Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) conducted during NSS 68^th Round, approximately 48% of the population in the 0-30% percentile class of HPCE (Monthly Per Capita Expenditure) is using kerosene for lighting purpose. NSSO does not define population as BPL and APL and information on whether kerosene is subsidized or not also not available with NSSO.

Ministry of Power has informed that the progress of erstwhile Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) is generally satisfactory. The Plan-wise coverage and achievement in release of free electricity connections to BPL households under the scheme is as under :

Five Year Plan	Coverage	Achievement	Percentage
X Plan	76,88,642	75,94,023	99%
XI Plan	1,87,20,174	1,42,35,022	76%

Expansion of electrification services automatically reduces the demand of kerosene for lighting purposes.

At present, there is no such proposal under consideration of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to restrict subsidies on kerosene only to unelectrified households.

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Change in the Price of Petrol and Diesel Vis-A-Vis International Market

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that the details of reduction in Retail Selling Price (RSP) of Petrol and Diesel in April 2015, at Delhi, as per Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is as under:

Date	Petrol (Rs./Ltr.)			Diesel (Rs./Ltr.)
Date	Pre revision RSP	Reduction	Revised RSP	Pre revision RSP	Reduction	Revised RSP
01.04.2015	60.49	(0.49)	60.00	49.71	(1.21)	48.50
16.04.2015	60.00	(0.80)	59.20	48.50	(1.30)	47.20
01.05.2015 (Current price)			63.16			49.57

The prices of Petrol and Diesel were made market determined effective 26^th June, 2010 and 19^th October, 2014 respectively. Since then, the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) take appropriate decision on price of these products in line with changes in the prices in international market and market conditions. OMCs have not only increased but also decreased the price of Petrol and Diesel in line with changes in the international prices and other market conditions.

The Refinery Transfer Price (RTP) of Petrol and Diesel constitute around 48% and 61% of their Retail Selling Price respectively. Many of the remaining cost elements viz. Excise Duty, BS IV premium, marketing cost and margins etc. are specific costs which do not increase/decrease with the variation in international price of Petrol and Diesel. The RTP of Petrol has reduced by Rs. 16.69 per litre from 1^st Fortnight of July 2014 to 1^st Fortnight of May 2015. After taking into account the increase in Excise Duty amounting to Rs. 7.98 per litre, the OMCs have reduced the Retail Selling Prices by Rs. 10.44 per litre. Similarly, the RTP of Diesel has reduced by Rs. 17.64 per litre from 1^st Fortnight of July 2014 to 1^st Fortnight of May 2015. After taking into account the increase in Excise Duty amounting to Rs. 6.70 per litre, the OMCs have reduced the Retail Selling Prices by Rs. 8.27 per litre. Thus, the major portion of the decrease in RTP has been passed on to the consumers of Petrol and Diesel.

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Availability/Potential of Oil and Gas

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that during the year 2014-15 domestic crude oil including condensate availability was 37.47 Million Metric Tonnes and domestic net natural gas availability was 89.31 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metre per Day (MMSCMD).

The total consumption of petroleum products during 2014-15(Provisional) was 164.98 MMT and total consumption of Natural Gas including Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import during 2014-15(Provisional) 139.67 MMSCMD.

The details of self-sufficiency of petroleum products based on domestic consumption during 2014-15 is 21.6%. As regards, natural gas the level of self-sufficiency during 2014-15 is 63.94%.

The quantum of crude oil and petroleum products and LNG imported to meet the requirements of the country apart from the domestic production during 2012-13 to 2014-15(Provisional) is as under:

Import of Crude Oil and Petroleum products during the last three years:

MMT

2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
200.574	205.918	209.616

Import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) during the last three years:

2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
13.13	13.02	13.99

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Variation in Cost of Gas

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 approved the proposal for pooling of domestic gas with imported Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) to supply gas at a uniform delivered cost to all the grid connected fertilizer plants for production of urea.

Domestic gas and imported RLNG will continue to be supplied to fertilizer units as per their existing contracts and additional volumes will be sourced from imported RLNG. The quantity of supply of domestic and imported RLNG may vary depending upon demand of individual fertilizer units and availability from upstream sources.

It is estimated that the pooling proposal will lead to additional production of around 37.13 lakh MT of urea in existing fertilizer units over the next four years (2015-16 to 2018-19). This is expected to result in saving of Rs.1550 crore of subsidy due to reduction in import.

The pooling mechanism shall become effective after notification of Guidelines for Pooling of Gas for Fertilizer (Urea) sector in the Official Gazette.

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Permission Sought by BP to Sell Jet Fuel

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that an application for authorisation to market Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) was submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas from BP Exploration (Alpha) Limited (BPXA), a wholly owned subsidiary of BP plc on 11th June 2014 claiming investment of US$477 million (including US$ 259 million of Capex investment) and proposed investment of US$2300 million.

To get marketing rights for transportation fuels, namely, Motor Spirit (MS), High Speed Diesel (HSD) and Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), an applicant must meet the requirements as per Clause 3 of Marketing Resolution dated 8th March, 2002. The requirements interalia, include investment or proposed investment of Rs. 2000 crore in exploration or production, refining, pipelines or terminals leading to additionality to the existing assets and /or creation of new assets in the eligible activities. The applicant also in case of proposed investment inter-alia has to achieve financial closure within five years, complete the project/projects in all respect within ten years, sign an agreement containing conditions and milestones, with the Government in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas/Regulatory Board with the provision of bank guarantee of Rs.500 crore for the proposed investment.

With reference to this application dated 11th June, 2014, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons has reported that British Petroleum (BP) share of expenditure was US$508 million between financial year 2011-12 and financial year 2013-14 of which the capital expenditure (Capex) component and operational expenditure (Opex) component is US$171 million and US$337 million respectively. This did not meet the joint requirements of the Clause 3(I) and 3(IV) of the Marketing Resolution dated 8th March, 2002, and thus the application dated 11.6.2014 was rejected.

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Non-Receiving of Bids for Shipment of Natural Gas from us by Gail

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that the tender floated by GAIL provided for charter hiring of 9 ships quoted in 3 lots of 3 ships each and 1 ship in each lot was to be built in an Indian Shipyard. GAIL’s tender specified that Indian shipyards would require to forge a binding technical collaboration with foreign shipyard who would transfer LNG shipbuilding technology. However, no qualified foreign shipyard signed a binding collaboration with an Indian shipyard till the due date for bid submission.

After consistent efforts of the Indian Government with the Korean Government for persuading the Korean shipyards to collaborate with Indian shipyards, recently, Samsung shipyard has signed a collaboration agreement with Cochin shipyard.

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Low LPG Coverage in West Bengal

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have reported that the LPG coverage in West Bengal is 49.3%, which is less than the all India coverage of 68.8%.

Appointment of LPG distributorships and release of new LPG connection is a continuous process. As on 01.04.2015, there are 555 Regular distributors and 229 Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitaraks (RGGLVs) in the State of West Bengal, covering 299 out of 341 blocks in the State. To do away with the shortfall upto an extent, OMCs have advertised 168 Regular and 338 RGGLVs to open new LPG distributors in the State of West Bengal. New LPG connections are issued on demand on the basis of applications received by OMCs. During the year 2014-15, 11.89 lac new domestic LPG connections were released in the State of West Bengal.

In order to extend LPG coverage to the needy, a scheme for providing one time grant to BPL families in the rural areas for release of new LPG connection through Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitaran Yojana is in operation in the country including the State of West Bengal. As per the scheme, the security deposit (upto Rs. 1600/-) for one cylinder and Pressure Regulator is paid from the fund created for this purpose. As on 01.04.2015, OMCs have released 7753 new domestic LPG connections to BPL families from the CSR fund scheme in the State of West Bengal.

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Steps to cut crude 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 the requirement of crude oil imports is an inter-play of several factors like success in new production of crude oil, successful acquisition of assets or equity oil abroad, success in conservation efforts, etc. The country’s crude oil import dependence based on domestic consumption of petroleum products was 78.4% during 2014-15.

The production of State run oil companies stagnated during the last few years. However, in order to accelerate the pace of exploration and production of oil and gas in the country, the Government has taken various policy initiatives which are as under:-

i. A project to reassess hydrocarbon resources in all sedimentary basins of India.

ii. Appraisal of un-appraised areas of all sedimentary basins of India.

iii. Policy on non-exclusive multi-client speculative survey for assessment of unexplored sedimentary basins.

iv. Improved Oil Recovery(IOR)/Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)-new techniques are adopted by National Oil Companies (NOCs) to enhance oil recovery from fields.

v. Policy framework for relaxations, extensions and clarifications at the development and production stage under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) regime for early monetization of hydrocarbon discoveries.

vi. Policy for exploration in the Mining Lease (ML) areas after the expiry of exploration period.

vii. Encouraging exploration and exploitation of alternative energy sources, such as Coal Bed Methane(CBM), Shale Gas/Shale Oil and Gas Hydrates etc.

viii. Policy for exploration and exploitation of Shale Gas/Shale Oil resources by NOCs under the nomination Regime.

During the year 2013-14 the production of crude oil was 37.788 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) and during the year 2014-15 it was 37.460MMT.

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