The Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has declared certification for a gas discovery by the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) in the Krishna-Godavari basin. The decision would help to make Gujarat, the gas hub of the country. Experts believe that the commercial value of approved Krishna-Godavari basin offshore block KG-OSN-2001/3 would be around $6 billion as per the prevailing market prices.

The Union Government announced to issue the oil bonds worth Rs 22,000 cr to three oil marketing companies of the country. Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum, and Bharat Petroleum would get Rs 11,975.51 crore, Rs 4,693.73 crore and Rs 5,330.76 crore respectively.

Moscow - Serbian President Boris Tadic flew to Moscow on Wednesday to ink a multimillion-dollar energy deal with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Under the deal, Serbia will sell a controlling stake in its oil monopoly NIS to Russian state giant Gazprom in exchange for a share in a strategic Russian pipeline through Serbia.

Serbian media reported the 51-per-cent stake was sold for 400 million euros (560 million dollars).

The Union Government would start auctioning over 100 prospective areas for oil and gas exploration fields through an international bidding. The new fields would be allotted as per the eighth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp-VIII) by the end of March 2009.
 

Vienna - The price for oil produced by the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) slid below the 40-dollar mark for
the second time this month on Thursday, despite the cartel's announced
production cut, OPEC said Friday.

The basket price for crude oil produced by OPEC stood at 39.48
dollars per barrel (159 litres) Thursday, 1.47 dollars less than on the
previous day, the Vienna-based organisation said.

OPEC's oil price fell in line with international crude prices. Oil

London - A British minister Friday called for further action to safeguard the stability of oil prices despite the current decline of the price for crude oil in the face of global recession.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who was Friday due to host a meeting of oil ministers from 40 countries in London, made his appeal just days after a cut in oil production announced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The London meeting was originally planned during the summer when the oil price surged to more than 140 dollars a barrel.

But Miliband told the Financial Times that it was still important to continue the dialogue between oil producer and consumer nations begun last June in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.