• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Our Bureau

The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Ram Naik, the Assistant Secretary of Energy Policy & International Affairs, US Department of Energy, Ms Vicky Bailey, and the Minister of State, Mr Santosh Kumar Gangwar, at the inauguration of the conference on `Building natural gas markets in India' in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI, April 17

THE Union Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik, on Wednesday reiterated that the Government would not put more strain on the common man by raising prices of petroleum products despite a recent surge in international crude oil prices.

"When we compare the common man's capacity to absorb the shock with that of the oil companies, the latter is in a better position to sustain losses for a while," Mr Naik said.

The Government had earlier advised its petroleum companies to maintain the prices to facilitate a smooth transition toward market pricing of petroleum products as against the earlier method of administered pricing mechanism (APM).

"What we desire is a smooth switchover from an administered regime to a deregulated market. Any company in a free market has to take into account sentiments of consumers," he said.

On April 1, the Government did away with the APM that existed for many decades, under which the Government fixed product prices.

Mr Naik said the national oil companies had enough strength to absorb about $4 per barrel rise in the price of crude oil.

The Petroleum Ministry hds written to the Finance Ministry for cutting the excise duty on petroleum products, which could offset the recent upward pressure on prices.

Mr Naik said that the Government was planning to set up a regulator for the downstream oil and refining and marketing sector, for which a Bill was likely to be tabled in Parliament during the current session after getting the Cabinet's approval.

"We have a draft Bill to set up a Petroleum Regulatory Board and it is pending before the Cabinet for approval," he said, adding the Bill might get passed in the monsoon session of Parliament.

Asked about reports that Indian Oil Corporation and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation would team up to bid for the Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd, Mr Naik said that all those who "want to bid and are eligible" should be allowed to be in the fray.

Earlier, at the `Indo-US Conference on building natural gas markets in India,' Mr Naik said that the hydrocarbon sector played an important role in meeting about 42 per cent of the country's primary energy requirements.

"To fuel economic growth, our country will be requiring about 368 million tonnes of crude oil and about 142 billion cubic metres of gas per year in the year 2005, against our present requirement of about 100 million tonnes of oil and 40 billion cubic metres of gas per year," he said.

Mr Naik said the Government was keen to augment gas supplies from international sources also and efforts were on to import piped natural gas from Iran and Bangladesh.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Dumping probe into X-ray system from EU

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line