June 27, 2017: Almost all European countries have sharp political differences with Russia under Vladimir Putin and have joined hands with the United States in imposing sanctions against that country. Still, they buy Russian gas and oil. China fell out with Russia during the days of Mao, but a couple of years ago, it entered into a long term contract to buy Russian gas through one of the longest transnational pipelines. In comparison, the gas-starved India has been shying away from accessing the pipeline option to access natural gas. Iran was the first to offer gas but citing terrorist infested Pakistan which the pipeline will have to traverse, India has virtually dumped the offer. www.indianoilandgas.com, almost five years ago, reported about the existence of a powerful LNG lobby in India’s top bureaucracy and almost identified the person. This lobby did not raise the security concerns when Reliance and Essar set up huge refineries at locations close to border with Pakistan. Now a new LNG regasification lobby is set to emerge which will further block the pipeline option. Click Free Access column Petro Intelligence to read an exciting report about sophisticated operations of these lobbies.

In Guest Column, acknowledged oil expert, Bhamy Shenoy, writes about the decision of RIL-BP combine to invest $ 6 billion to develop three fields in KG D6. The proposed investment defies conventional business logic, but looks like a deliberate decision.

BP and RIL are giants in the areas they operate. They must have their own calculations when they announced their plans to invest over $ 6 billion to develop three fields in KG D6, but their logic is eluding the ordinary mortals in the upstream industry. BP is still silent on its plans for fuel retailing. Iran is undecided on awarding contract for Farzad B field. The basic difference is not precisely the price quoted by Indian PSUs. These are among the five issues discussed in column Policy. India finally settles the kerosene conundrum. Domestic gas production is to witness an uptrend in the immediate future. These are among the four subjects in column Regulation.

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June 26, 2017: The uploading of our fortnightly issue, scheduled for Monday, June 26th, is postponed to Tuesday on account of Eid-al-Fitr which is a holiday in most countries.