The shares of major oil marketing firms in the country fell today following indications that the government has given in-principle approval to plans for the adoption of export parity pricing model for petroleum products.

India's Essar Oil Ltd is on the verge of signing a $1 billion financing co-operation deal with China Development Bank Corp (CDBC) and PetroChina International, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Sources said that the $1 billion financing agreement could be signed between the two sides on Tuesday during China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang's first official visit to Mumbai.

Government-backed ONGC is considering selling stakes in some of its deep-water blocks to energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, ONGC Chairman & Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva revealed on Friday.

Selling of stakes to Shell is being considered as part of a strategy to hit a broad partnership with the global energy giant. The discussions are, however, currently at a very preliminary stage.

Kolkata, May 17 : State-owned energy major ONGC Friday said there is a huge scope of upward revision of the shale gas estimates for the country.

As per the US government's EIA (Energy Information Administration) estimates, India's four basins - Damodar, KG, Cambay and Cauvery - have shale gas resources of around 290 trillion cubic feet, of which 63 TCF is considered technically recoverable.

"There is huge scope of upward revision of the EIA estimates of 63 TCF for the country, which are merely based on the available conventional data from these basins," Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) chairman Sudhir Vasudeva said here.

The crude distillation unit of the Visakha refinery of the Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) suffered a major fire on Thursday night, causing a widespread panic in the residential areas in the vicinity.

A press release said the fire broke out at around 11 p. m. at the Crude Oil Distillary Unit 3 (CDU3), and could be brought under control only by 4.40 a. m. on Friday.

Mumbai, May 16 : The public sector oil marketing companies have decided to stop supplies of cooking gas refills to households with multiple connections from June 1 unless they comply with KYC norms, an official said here Thursday.

This would include even delivery of non-subsidised cylinders, and no transactions will be allowed in such cases after the connections are blocked by the OMC - Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, the official said.

Suzlon Group-subsidiary, REpower Systems has said on Thursday that its cumulative orders of 580 MW over a three month period excluding the orders that were announced separately by the company.

The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for the LPG (cooking gas) consumers will be launched in 20 districts on 1st of June this year, the Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry announced on Wednesday.

The launch of the much-hyped scheme would allow the government to put subsidy cash directly into the beneficiaries' bank accounts, which as per Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily, will help in curbing leakages and black-marketing.

According to the latest figures released, the Brent futures fell towards $102 a barrel on Wednesday after US increased supplies and experts predicted a lower growth in global demand.

Brent has fallen 14 per cent since its highest level in 2013 due to increasing stockpiles in the US and weak demand for fuel in the Chinese economy. A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed that the U. S. shale oil production is expected to rise further and this added pressure on the global fuel prices.

Activists working against the use of nuclear energy in the country are demanding details of the emergency plan from the authorities for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP).

They want to determine if the authorities will be able to evacuate the people living in the 16-km radius of the plant. M. Pushparayan, a leader of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) said that the groups aims to know the level of preparedness of the three district administrations as the plant is ready to for commissioning.

REpower Systems SE, a unit of Suzlon group, has received an order worth 90 million euros or more than over Rs. 639 crore for four projects in the wind energy sector in Germany.

REpower Systems received a contract from Bürgerwindpark in Kirchspiel Medelby GmbH & Co KG for supplying 27 wind turbines to four projects worth 90 million euros, according to a statement from the company. The turbines are to be supplied next year to the projects that are located in Northern Schleswig-Holstein near the Danish border. Repower has also concluded a service contract for 15 years with a clause allowing the contract to be extended for five more years.

J Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has urged the union government to withdraw the latest hike in the prices of diesel in the country.

She claimed that the hike in diesel price is unfair as the prices of crude oil in the international market have actually fallen in recent days. She pointed out that since the central government decontrolled the prices of fuel allowing oil firms to set prices based on international prices, the diesel prices have been increased thrice by 45 paise and for the fourth time on Friday by 90 paisa.

Reporting its fourth quarter results on Friday, Essar Oil said that its net profit during the quarter was Rs 200 crore, which marked a noteworthy improvement over a Rs 608 crore loss which the company reported in the same quarter last year. However, for the year ending 2012-2013, the annual profits of Essar continued to be in red, with the company posting an annual loss of Rs 1,180 crore.

New Delhi, May 10 : Diesel price will increase by 90 paise per litre plus taxes from Friday-Saturday midnight, the country's largest oil marketing firm Indian Oil Corporation said Friday.

The company has decided to hike the price after a gap of two months.

Indian Oil Corporation said the Rs. 0.90 per litre increase in price would cover the increase of April and May.

“Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. has decided to increase the Retail Selling Price of Diesel w. e. f midnight of 10th/11th May '13 by Rs. 0.90/litre (excluding VAT) covering the increase for the months of April and May 2013,” the company said in a statement. (IANS)

Beijing, May 9 : China will hike petrol and diesel retail prices by 95 yuan (around $15) per tonne starting Friday, the country's top economic planner said Thursday.

As part of the government's efforts to promote market-oriented pricing for energy resources, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) introduced a new pricing mechanism in the domestic market in March to better reflect global market changes, Xinhua reported.

Domestic fuel prices will not be changed if global oil price changes are less than 50 yuan per tonne, according to the new pricing regime.(IANS)

Mumbai, May 9 : The Reliance Industries (RIL)-led consortium operating the offshore KG-D6 gas fields plans to serially invest $5 billion to reverse falling output.

"We are planning to invest in a series of projects to develop around four trillion cubic feet of discovered natural gas resources from the block," RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said in the company's annual report for 2012-13.

India's apex court, the Supreme Court of India has dismissed a plea challenging Vedanta-Cairn deal valued at US 8.5 billion on Thursday.

The SC threw out a PIL that challenged the validity of the deal. A bench of justices K. S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra ruled that the decision was taken by the central government and the ONGC based on the deal and the court will not interfere with a judgment on the decision thatwas taken by parties in business dealing after due deliberations.

The Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu has finally been approved by the Supreme Court of India.

The apex court today (Monday) approved the commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, saying it is safe as well as necessary for larger public interest and growth of the Indian economy.

Thiruvananthapuram, May 6 : Former Kerala chief minister V. S. Achuthanandan Monday termed as unfortunate the sanction accorded by the apex court to operationalise the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu.

"It is common knowledge that the plant's security aspects are not fool-proof and there's a general fear on this aspect. The people there are on a protest with just one demand that they should be safe," the veteran Communist leader said in a statement.

Washington, May 6 : A power venture formed by Indian and North American energy professionals plans to create a role model for the world by lighting up famed Buddhist sites in Bihar with a $240 million (Rs. 13 billion) solar energy project as part of a corporate social responsibility initiative.

Founded in 2011, FJS Energy LLC, USA, aims to work around the Buddhist Circuits starting with Rajgir-Nalanda and Bodhgaya in the first phase and then taking up Vaishali and other places.