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India holds about 100 million barrels of commercial crude oil stocks - in storage tanks, underground strategic reserves and on ships voyaging towards the country - which could cover roughly 40-45 days of its requirement if flows through the Strait of Hormuz are disrupted, according to Kpler. India imports about 88 per cent of the crude oil it needs - the raw material for fuels such as petrol and diesel - with more than 50 per cent supplied by Middle Eastern countries and transiting the narrow Strait of Hormuz, flows from which have been disrupted amid the Iran crisis. If Middle Eastern crude supply were to halt completely for a temporary period, the immediate impact would be logistical and price-driven, with supply risks intensifying if movement through the Strait of Hormuz is disrupted for longer, said Sumit Ritolia, Lead Research Analyst, Refining & Modeling at Kpler. A closure of Strait of Hormuz would at first impact prompt cargo liftings. "However, refiners typically maintain
With crude inventories sufficient to meet at least 10 days of requirements and fuel stocks covering another 5-7 days, India is unlikely to face any near-term disruption in oil supplies from the closure of the key supply route of the Strait of Hormuz, officials said. Even as rapidly unfolding developments, following US and Israeli military strikes on Iran, including the reported killing of the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, suggest the conflict may not last very long, New Delhi has contingency plans in place should tensions escalate, top officials and analysts said. Iran's state media said on February 28 that the Islamic Republic has shut the Strait of Hormuz - one of the world's most critical energy chokepoints through which about a fifth of global oil and gas supplies transit - in response to US and Israeli missile strikes. The closure for a short duration will not have much impact on India as it already has supplies to meet fuel requirements, they said, adding that in the even
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has made promising offshore oil and gas discoveries in the Mumbai Offshore basin that could help augment production in the near future. The discoveries have been made in blocks awarded under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) regime, the state-owned firm said in its fourth-quarter earnings statement. The discoveries, which have been named Suryamani and Vajramani, were made in OALP-VI block MB-OSHP-2020/2 and OALP-III block MB-OSHP- 2018/1, both in the offshore Mumbai basin. Exploratory well MBS202HAA-1 on Block MB-OSHP-2020/2 flowed 2,235 barrels per day of oil and 45,181 million cubic metres a day of gas during testing done in the January-March quarter. "This is the first discovery in Basal Clastics in OALP Block MB-OSHP-2020/2. The success in well MBS202HAA-1 was notified as New Prospect Discovery and rechristened as 'Suryamani'," ONGC said. Subsequently, during the current quarter, a second zone was tested on the same wel
The oil regulator has made it mandatory for companies planning to establish new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals or expand existing ones to obtain prior approval, but dropped the requirement to reserve a portion of the terminal capacity for third-party access. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has notified Registration for Establishing and Operating Liquefied Natural Gas Terminals Regulations, 2025. "These regulations lay down a robust framework focused on registration and oversight of LNG terminals, (and) promotion of competition among entities and prevention of infructuous investments," the regulator said, adding that the rules are a step in alignment with India's vision of increasing the share of natural gas to 15 per cent in the energy mix by 2030. The norms also seek to ensure equitable and adequate natural gas availability across the country, protection of consumer interests through improved access and supply reliability, and facilitate ...
The government will hold pre-emption rights over all oil and natural gas produced in the country in any event of national emergency, according to draft rules being framed under a revamped oilfields legislation. A pre-emption right (or preemptive right) is the legal right of a party - often a government or existing shareholder - to purchase or claim a product, asset, or resource before it is offered to others. The inclusion of such rights over crude oil - extracted from underground or beneath the seabed and refined into fuels like petrol and diesel - as well as natural gas, which is used for power generation, fertilizer production, CNG for vehicles, and piped cooking gas, is intended to help the government prioritize national interests and ensure public welfare during emergencies. The producer of oil and natural gas will be paid a "fair market price prevailing at the time of pre-emption", the draft rules said. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has invited comments on draft rules
Oil marketing companies have selected 26 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) out of 286 applications for setting up retail petrol and diesel outlets, Cooperation Minister Amit Shah told Parliament on Tuesday. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Shah said the government has allowed PACS to operate retail petrol and diesel outlets and LPG distributorship. As informed by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), 286 PACS from 25 states and Union Territories have submitted online applications to establish retail petrol/diesel outlets, of which 26 PACS have been selected by OMCs, he said. Under conversion of PACS, Wholesale Consumer Pumps into retail outlets, OMC reports indicate that 116 PACS from five states have agreed to this conversion, and 56 PACS have been commissioned. For LPG distributorship, two PACS have applied for the two advertised locations in Jharkhand. As per the revised guidelines, PACS have been included under Combined Category 2 (CC-2) for retail petrol/ diesel ...
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has made four more discoveries since it first made an oil field near Asokenagar in West Bengal six years back but is still awaiting the state government's nod for a petroleum mining lease to develop them, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday. ONGC notified the first Asokenagar discovery in Block WB-ONN-2005/4 on September 24, 2018, Puri said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha. The discovery, he said was the outcome of continuous exploration efforts of ONGC in the Bengal sedimentary basin over five decades. As per initial laboratory studies, crude oil, which is refined into fuels like petrol and diesel, discovered in the Ashokenagar discovery is a light variety with American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity of 40-41 degrees and is almost similar to Bombay High and Brent Crude. "ONGC, accordingly, applied on September 10, 2020, to the Government of West Bengal for a grant of Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) for an