Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Friday announced that the capacity of the most advanced refinery at Panipat shall be expanded from 12 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes, per annum, and the expansion would be completed by November this year at a cost of Rs. 14,000 crore.

The near by naphtha cracker complex and the hydro cracker project at Haldia would also be commissioned this year.

IOC Director (Refineries), B. N. Bankapur, said that the commissioning of the naphtha cracker and the downstream polymer units at Panipat would make it an integrated refinery cum petrochemicals complex.

Brussels  - European Union representatives are to hold an emergency meeting on the Russian-Ukrainian gas row on Monday and could send an investigating team to the two countries within days, officials in Brussels confirmed Saturday.

The permanent ambassadors of the EU's 27 member states - their highest representatives in Brussels - are to hold an extraordinary meeting on Monday to discuss Russia's shut-off of gas to Ukraine, EU officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Prague  - The European Union Saturday threatened to bypass Russia and Ukraine for the bloc's gas needs if irregularities in Russian gas supplies via Ukraine persist in the future, Czech officials said.

Czech Vice-Premier for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra said the EU was ready to speed up work on Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines that would bring Russian gas to Europe without passing through Ukraine.

Moscow/Brussels/Kiev/Budapest/Prague - Russian natural gas deliveries fell substantially in downstream markets on Saturday, drawing a sharp European Union demand the Kremlin and Ukraine end a row over energy.

Russian natural gas volumes pumped via Ukrainian pipelines to Romania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania all were down, with Romania registering a 33 per cent cut in deliveries.

Russia on Thursday halted natural gas deliveries to Ukraine because of a delivery contract dispute. Fuel volumes moving onward to Europe fell marginally on Friday.

Budapest/Brussels - The European Union reported the first impacts of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian gas row on Friday evening as three member states in Central and Eastern Europe reported falling gas pressure in their pipelines.

Pipeline pressure is down in the main pipes leading from Ukraine into EU members Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the Czech Republic's energy envoy, Vaclav Bartuska, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The Czech Republic currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

"It is so far only a decrease in pressure. The volumes (being delivered) remain the same ... The Ukrainian side told us that volumes will be down tomorrow (Saturday)," Bartuska said.

Prague - Pressure began to drop Friday in pipelines that supply Russian natural gas to the European Union at the bloc's border with Ukraine, a result of Russia's cut in gas delivery to Ukraine that began Thursday, a Czech energy official said.

"It is so far only a decrease in pressure. The volumes remain the same," Czech Republic's energy envoy Vaclav Bartuska told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. He said that the pipeline pressure was down on Ukraine's border with Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.