Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nudged only slightly upwards on Friday, OPEC said in a statement on Monday.

Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), an ONGC group company, has posted a net profit of Rs 845.4 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008.  

The company has registered a growth of over two-fold from the year-ago period due to inventory gain of Rs 655 crore net of tax on account of increase in average crude oil price from approximately $100 per barrel in March 2008 to $129/bbl in June 2008.

The Company had posted a net profit of Rs 368.55 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2007.

Country’s largest oil and gas explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) plans to enter uranium mining business in alliance with public-sector Uranium Corporation of India (UCI), the only company producing nuclear power in India.

As the Indo-US nuclear deal is near finalization, the company sees this as a good time to enter into the business. It aims to tap the business opportunity from nuclear fuel shortage in Asia's third largest economy.

Areva T&D India Ltd., the local unit of the world's biggest maker of nuclear reactors, has been awarded a contract worth about €40mn with Larsen & Toubro Ltd. - ECC Division, for the supply of a substation package for Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.

This contract is one of the biggest recently to be awarded in the Indian power distribution Industry. L&T is the main contractor for the Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (DIAL).