London, Aug 27 : Cairn India, a subsidiary of the UK-based Cairn Energy, may produce up to 71 per cent more oil from the Rajasthan field and is close to securing the credit lines that will ensure sufficient funding is in place to start production next year.

The Rajasthan field is the largest oil find in the country after Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) Bombay High discovery in 1974. ONGC holds 30 per cent in the block.

Chief Executive Sir Bill Gammell said the company “is on track to deliver crude oil from Rajasthan in the second half of 2009.”

Stock market analysts have maintained ‘buy’ rating on ONGC stock with an intraday target of Rs 1030.

According to them, interested traders can purchase the stock above Rs 1020 with a strict stop loss of Rs 1010. If the stock market remains positive, the stock pricing becomes more attractive, and reach above Rs 1035.

The London-listed oil company, Imperial Energy, which operates in Russia, is progressing in its talks with India’s Oil and Natural Gas Company. It is being thought that soon it will agree for the takeover deal valuing Imperial at about $2.8bn.

The sources have revealed that negotiation between the state owned ONGC and Imperial are ongoing with succession and soon a bid could be announced before Imperial’s next results. The bid has been submitted by ONGC to buy Imperial, the sale of which most probably will be announced next week.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's government Saturday reduced the retail price of petrol by 5.6 per cent to help curb rising inflation.

The pump price of gasoline was fixed at 2.55 ringgit (0.77 dollars) per litre down from 2.70 ringgit. Diesel prices have been reduced from 2.58 ringgit to 2.50 ringgit per litre.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made the announcement late Friday, saying the move would help curb inflation, which rose to a decade-high of 8.5 per cent in July.

"The government hopes that the reduction in gasoline and diesel prices will help to ease consumers' burden as well as ease inflationary pressure," Abdullah said in a statement.

Vienna  - Rising 3.86 dollars on Thursday, the price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) jumped back above the
110-dollar-mark, data issued by OPEC showed on Friday.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC-produced crude stood at 113.63 dollars Thursday, compared with 109.77 dollars on the previous day.

Oil prices were pushed by concerns about rising tensions between the United States and oil producer Russia, Vienna-based energy consultants JBC said.