June 23, 2017: Gross Refining Margins of Indian refineries improved in FY 2016-17 on the strength of low crude price. This is in tune with the trend in other countries. India imports around 82 per cent of its crude requirement. Click column Special Database for details.

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June 22, 2017: India’s natural gas scene remained more or less unchanged in May 2017. No appreciable change either way in production, consumption and import of LNG. Click column Gas Scene for details. 

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June 21, 2017: The use of bio fuels in the transportation fuel pool is spreading across the world. Unlike other regions, Asia is very diverse region where fuels and also bio-fuel policy are at different stages. This region is very active in implementing bio fuels program and utilising its abundant agricultural resources to produce bio fuels. Click column Alternate Fuels for details of feed stock used in the Asian countries.

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June 20, 2017: Shale exploration in India is practically a non-starter though ONGC managed to drill a couple of wells last year. The Indian government does not make any claim on shale exploration, no specific target either. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has summed up the status of shale gas /oil status which gives an idea about the abundant caution with which the government is approaching the issue. Click Gas Scene for details. 

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June 19, 2017: Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the government plan to merge all oil and gas PSUs into a giant corporation. The contours of the merger are still being worked out. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has 12 PSUs under its administrative control. For a better appreciation of the merged entity we have collected the market capitaliszation of each of these PSUs. Click column Special Database for details.

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June 12, 2017: Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL), the private company promoted by the four oil PSUs, has been in existence for about 17 years now. Suddenly, it has assumed the status of a blue chip company on the strength of the huge profits it has been making of late. The LNG it gets from RasGas of Qatar on the basis of the long-term contract is costlier than the spot market price by $1 to 1.5 /mmbtu. PLL does not market the LNG which is done by the public sector promoters such as GAIL, IOC and BPCL. Then, from where does PLL’s profit come? PLL’s only role is the regasification of the LNG at its Dahej terminal. Regasification has a charge? The size of the company’s profit depends basically on this charge. Has PLL inflated it? Click Free access column Petro Intelligence for a comprehensive report on PLL’s performance since inception.