The oil ministry has approved further exploration in Cairn India's operational oilfields in Rajasthan to increase production.

“The proposal was pending with us for more than one and a half years. According to the existing PSC, the contractors are not prohibited for exploration in producing fields, however, we have given our approvals,” a senior oil ministry official said. "Cost-recovery shall be permitted only after commercial viability of finds are established," the official added. Anil Agarwal earlier wrote a letter to oil minister Veerappa Moily seeking permission to explore remaining potential resources in India's biggest onland oilfield. The company plans to ramp up production from its Rajasthan block to 3,00,000 barrels per day.

The U.S.

The C Rangarajan panel, which is likely to give its report on the licensing of oil and gas fields in a week, is expected to favour production-linked payment for profit-sharing between the government and oil explorers, replacing the existing system of linking it to investments.

Currently, producers can decide whether and how to recover their investments before starting to share profits with the state. “The new contractual provision is being proposed to overcome the difficulties in managing the existing model based on the pre- tax investment multiple methodology and cost recovery mechanism,” the report has said.

The environment ministry has simplified the procedures for granting clearances to special economic zones as it seeks to shed the anti-industry image.

The Prime Minister-appointed Rangarajan Committee may this week suggest sweeping changes in future oil and gas contracts by asking explorers to bid for a percentage of output they would share with the government.

Sources said the panel may ask the government to move to a production-linked payment regime where explorers will be required to bid for the government share of production after royalty.

Block may contain over 100 million barrels of condensate or light oil and 3 trillion cubic feet of gas

An expert committee has suggested that offshore farms to harness wind energy may be set up at Rameshwaram, Kanyakumari, Maharashtra, Kerala-Konkan and Gujarat, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

With the government keen to close out the sale of the residual stakes in Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) and Hindustan Zinc (HZL) by the end of the fiscal, the London-listed Vedanta Resources is r