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Briefing
IOC still a part of Petronet LNG: Pathan
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Tuesday claimed it was still a promoter of Petronet LNG, a company floated by national oil companies to import the fuel, and it had not yet decided to withdraw in favour of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). "We are still one of the promoters of Petronet LNG and our board has not yet decided to part with its stake in lNG company to favour NTPC," chairman of IOC MA Pathan told PTI when asked if IOC had volunteered its stake in Petronet LNG to accomodate NTPC. To a question if the government had directed IOC to withdraw from petronet LNG, Pathan said, "we have not received any orders from the government and as of now we are still with Petronet LNG." The petroleum ministry had earlier sought cabinet approval on equity structuring of Petronet LNG with 16.33 per cent stake each for NTPC, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Gas Authority of india Ltd (gail), saying IOC and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) would not be a part of the company.70 lakh gas connections by fiscal-end
The oil industry will release about 70 lakh gas LPG connections to the various consumers during the current fiscal, Indian Oil Corporation chairman MA Pathan said in New Delhi on Tuesday. "The oil industry has an ambitious plan to liquidate waitlists of domestic LPG users in all the metros by the year 2001-02," Pathan said addressing a national seminar on LPG safety organised by the Loss Prevention Association of India. About 41 million households are using LPG in India which is being serviced through 5,600 distributors in as many as 2,100 markets which constitutes 71 per cent of the urban population, he said. Pathan said India was currently consuming five million tonnes of LPG every year which was expected to go up to seven million tonnes by 2001-02 and to 13 million tonnes by the year 2006-07. "To supplement indigenous production, we are likely toimport 2.4 million tonnes of LPG by the year 2001-02 and 3.8 million tonnes of LPG during 2006-07 respectively," he said. Moves afoot to recast Kerala SEB
Moves are afoot to vertically recast the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) into three separate centres before the close of the current fiscal. The different task forces set up the SEB are burning midnight oil to beat the March 31 deadline set by the power ministry to restructure KSEB into three profit-making centres of generation, transmission and distribution, sources said. The state power ministry has initiated steps to recast KSEB operation a couple of months back in tune with the new power policy announced by the Centre aimed at transforming the loss-making SEBs into profitable centres by using options including privatisation of core areas of operations. However, the state power ministry has maintained that KSEB would be retained in the public sector while vertically splitting its operations to achieve the goal. Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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