May 24, 2019: India has a prognosticated 92 TCF Coal Bed Methane resources of which 9.9 TCF had already been established. Big private players such as RIL and Essar are already in CBM exploration and production. However, total CBM gas production in the country remains marginal. Click column Gas Scene for details.

May 23, 2019: India's domestic crude production has been declining consistently in recent years, touching a new low in FY 2018-19. In comparison, overseas production by Indian companies touched an all-time high as percentage of domestic production in 2018-19 and further up in April. PSUs such as ONGC Videsh Ltd, OIL, IOC, BPRL, HPCL and GAIL hold equity oil overseas. Click column Special Database for details. 

May 22, 2019: The share of high sulphur (HS) crude in processing by Indian refineries has been rising consistently in recent years. High sulphur crude is relatively cheap which enables refineries to improve their GRM. In April 2019, the quantum of high HS crude processed touched an all-time high. Click column Special Database for details.

May 9, 2019 | Aramco-Reliance Alliance Sparks Jitters: India’s downstream petroleum retailing is dominated by the PSU oil marketing companies. RIL and Essar (now Nayara) entered fuel retailing more than a decade ago, but could not dent PSU’s dominance. In fact, the three PSUs have announced their plans to double the number of their retail outlets in the next five years. But these PSUs are now really in jitters following the announcement of a likely deal between Aramco and RIL. Aramco is negotiating to buy 25 per cent stake in RIL’s refinery and petrochemicals and the deal looks almost concluded. Aramco enjoys the political backing of the Saudi government and RIL is rated as the most politically influential corporate in India. There are any number of purchasable characters within the PSUs. Will RIL resort to a Jio-type strategy to bleed the PSUs? Are these fears genuine or exaggerated? Click Free Access column Petro Intelligence for a brilliant piece on the subject.