India's state-run upstream oil firms will bear nearly 40 percent of the 1.38 trillion rupee ($25 billion) cost of retail fuel subsidies for the 2011/12 year, a government source said on Monday.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Oil India Ltd and GAIL (India) sell refined products and crude oil to state fuel retailers at a discount. Government also provides a cash subsidy to cover some of their losses.

State-run upstream firms will give a total discount of about 550 billion rupees to Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp, the source said.

The Petroleum Ministry has sought cash subsidy of Rs.49,872 crore from the Finance Ministry to compensate state-owned oil companies for selling fuel at government-controlled rates in the January-March quarter.

Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation together lost Rs.1.48 lakh crore on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at rates lower than cost in 2011-12, an Oil Ministry official said here.

BPCL, HPCL and Indane furnished a list of consumers with more than one cylinders

If you are one of those LPG customers, ‘enjoying’ the facility of more than one gas connection, here is some serious trouble coming your way. The oil marketing companies (OMCs) - Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Indane - have come together to weed out multiple gas connections.

If you have multiple liquefied natural gas (LPG) connections or one along with a piped natural gas (PNG) connection, be ready to have your cylinder blocked if you do not surrender it. The three government oil marketers blocked as many as 3.8 million LPG connections by March 2012.

Oil marketing companies IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum together blocked nearly 2.9 million LPG connections belonging to customers having more than one connection across states. Similarly, around 900,000 LPG connections with consumers having PNG connections were blocked.

The Oil Ministry has refused permission to public sector oil companies for acquiring Asian Development Bank's stake in Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) so as to keep the nation's largest liquefied natural gas importer a private company. The ADB on August 23 last year offered to sell its 5.2 per cent stake in PLL, in which GAIL, Indian Oil (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) hold 12.5 per cent stake each and have a first right of refusal.

Plan to revise prices every fortnight to recover . 5k cr of revenue losses. State oil firms plan to raise petrol prices after the end of the budget session of Parliament this month and revise them every fortnight to recover . 5,000 crore past revenue losses as they haven’t increased rates since December due to political pressure. So far, the oil ministry has not allowed oil firms to exercise their freedom to raise petrol prices as per a Cabinet decision. The ministry informally advises companies to postpone the decision because of political considerations.

June may turn out to be the luckiest month for government oil marketing companies for the third year in a row. Like the last two years, this June is also expected to see a round of price hikes in controlled fuel products. Price hikes of controlled petroleum products such as diesel, cooking gas and kerosene have been happening annually in the month of June, irrespective of the companies’ losses. A price increase of petrol is also likely.

Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL) and three public sector oil companies — Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) — have entered into joint venture agreements for setting up three cross-country natural gas transmission pipelines.

According to a statement filed with the Bombay Stock Exchange, the GSPL-led consortium executed the agreements on April 30 for developing the pipelines of 3,995 km.

In order to keep the nation's largest liquefied natural gas importer a private firm.

The Oil Ministry has rejected public sector oil companies' plan to acquire Asian Development Bank's stake in Petronet LNG so as to keep the nation's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer a private firm. The ADB had on August 23 last year offered to sell its 5.2% stake in Petronet, in which GAIL, IndianOil (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) hold 12.5% stake each and have a first right of refusal

Finance ministry not inclined to forego more revenue. The oil ministry has asked for a tax cut of . 6 per litre on petrol to help avoid a sharp rise in retail price of the fuel, but the finance ministry, which has already surrendered . 49,000 crore by reducing various levies of fuels last year, is reluctant to forgo more revenue. The oil ministry’s request follows demands by state-run oil marketing companies to either cut taxes or allow them raise petrol prices by . 8 per litre.