In the first five months of 2013-14, the New Mangalore Port (NMPT) recorded a growth of 12.25 per cent in cargo handling. The port handled 15.76 million tonne of cargo from April-August as against 14.04 million tonne in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal (2012-13). Crude oil and coal contributed to the growth in port's cargo handled during the period, said the port's Chairman P Tamilvanan.

To reduce the current account deficit (CAD), the Union Oil Ministry has worked out a plan, which can save $22 billion in the oil import bill from Iran, said the Union Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily. The Minister said that import of oil is one of the components responsible for CAD. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told the Ministry to save $25 billion in the import bill. And accordingly, the Ministry has prepared a plan to save $22 billion in import bill, Moily said.

To foray into Indian oil and gas sector, Saudi Aramco, world's biggest oil producer, plans to buy up to 30 per cent stake in ONGC Petro additions Ltd with a lead role in the Indian government-owned giant petrochemicals project in Gujarat.

West Bengal government may invite joint bidding by Indian Oil Corporation and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for selling its about 40 per cent stake in Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL). It is learnt that besides IOC, and ONGC, RIL, Cairn India, and GAIL are also eyeing the stake. The state government rejected Reliance Industries’ (RIL) plea for an open auction for stake sale as it already announced it woul

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), subsidiary of the government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is ready with a blueprint for 120 retail outlets to be rolled out in Karnataka. MRPL entered the fuel retail segment in 2008. Karnataka is MRPL's base-state. MRPL has approval to set up 500 retail outlets and its parent company ONGC has an approval to set up 1,100 retail outlets. Setting up an outlet costs MRPL Rs 5 crore.

Larsen & Toubro Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHEL), which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), may be spun off as a separate subsidiary. L&T is seeking shareholders' approval to spin off the subsidiary, which is engaged in designing, engineering, procurement and construction solutions on turnkey basis for oil and gas, petroleum refining, chemicals, petrochemicals and fertiliser sectors and pipelines, among othe

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) would procure Rs 38,500 crore worth of crude oil from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for a five-year period, according to an agreement signed between the firms recently. MRPL is a subsidiary of ONGC. ONGC would supply Mumbai High crude from JNPT and offshore platform to MRPL. ONGC supplies about 11-12 per cent

Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily informed in Rajya Sabha that Indian Oil Corp (IOC) agreed to import 1.2 million tonne crude oil from Iran in 2013-14 compared to 1.566 million tonne in the previous year. This represents a fall of over 23 per cent in crude oil import by IOC from the Persian Gulf nation. During April-June 2013, the firm imported 0.577 million tonne of oil from Iran. It may be noted that IOC is India's third

Disinvestment of 10 per cent paid-up equity in the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) has been approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, as per the government's disinvestment policy. The disinvestment will be through Offer for Sale (OFS) method in the domestic market according to the SEBI rules and regulations. After this disinvestment, the government shareholding in the company would come down to 68.92 per cent, after deducting the 10 per cent in the present equity capital holding of