Barely a few months after the news of allowing RIL to increase the price by 3.5 times the current level on the supplies from its KG fields, the spectre of a steep hike has come to haunt users again. A committee under C Rangarajan, mandated to suggest the design of future contracts for exploration and production of oil and gas, has also recommended a basis/formula to price domestically produced gas. It has suggested price to be benchmarked to four series of international prices, viz Henry Hub (HH) in the US, National Balancing Point (NBC) in the UK, netback prices of sources of LNG supply for Japan, and netback price of Indian imports of LNG at well head of exporting countries....
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Category: Oil & Gas
Crippling effects of oil subsidies
A lesser known aspect of the much talked about oil subsidies is the unprecedented ‘liquidity crunch’ that oil PSUs viz., IOC, HPCL and BPCL, face perennially. Subsidies are administered through these undertakings. Under instructions from the Government, these PSUs sell kerosene, LPG and diesel at low prices (prior to June 2010, price of petrol was also regulated). How is the excess of cost over selling price covered? Oil and gas PSUs contribute 40 per cent of differential amount by way of discount on crude supplies. The Government is supposed to reimburse 60 per cent as subsidy. However, it rarely meets its commitment in full! RISING UNDER-RECOVERIES Thus, during the first nine months of 2012-13 fiscal (April-December 2012), these PSUs had...
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No case for hike in KG gas price
Arvind Kejriwal has expressed serious concern over the price hike in gas supplies from RIL’s KG fields. He has also alluded to a bonanza of Rs 45,000 crore that would accrue to Mukesh Ambani over the next two years. Whether or not the Government acquiesces to RIL’s demand for hike in price from the existing $4.2 per mbtu (million British thermal unit) to around $14 per mbtu is a matter on which the EGoM has to take a call. However, what it will have in store for the economy is an issue that we need to seriously consider. India imports 80 per cent of its crude requirements. Apart from being a cleaner fuel, gas offers enormous scope for reducing import...
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