New Delhi State-owned fuel marketers IOC, HPCL and BPCL on Thursday ruled out an immediate rollback of the steepest petrol price increase of R7.5-R8 a litre from Thursday night but conceded that if the government instructs them to cut prices, they have no other go but to follow their majority shareholder.

They also indicated that if petrol price falls in world markets or rupee strengthens against the dollar this fortnight, the resultant gain shall be passed on to the consumer by way of a price cut.

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.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) expects to expand the Vizag Refinery plant to 15 million tonnes by 2015-16, a top official of the state-run oil firm said. According to HPCL director (refineries) K Murali, Engineers India (EIL) has been appointed as consultants for the project and they are expected to submit a report on that. “They (Engineers India) are expected to complete the feasibility report in few months’ time. Then we will have to take it to the board for approvals.

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.

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.

State cites delay in project execution, cancels allotment of 1,500 acres

In a setback to state-owned HPCL, the Andhra Pradesh government has cancelled the land allotted to the company for setting up its proposed Rs 45,000-crore petrochemical complex at Visakhapatnam, due to delay in executing the project, a government official has said. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) was allotted 1,500 acres in 2007 for setting up the petrochemical complex in the proposed Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) coming up between Kakinada and Visakhapatnam on the east coast.