New Delhi, Sept 11: Oil Minister Ram Naik said on Monday that the government was considering a mix of options to cut down losses incurred due to sales of some petroleum products at prices below their cost of production.The options include issue of bonds to oil companies for monies owed to them, reductions in excise duties and hikes in government-set prices of petroleum products, he said. "I will go for a mixture of all these three," Naik told reporters.The government oil pool account, maintained on behalf of the oil firms, is used to balance subsidies on products like liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene with surcharges on petrol and aviation fuel. The account goes into a deficit when subsidy outflows exceed surcharge inflows. The oil pool deficit is currently at Rs 90 billion ($1.97 billion), up from 60 billion at the start of the financial year on April 1.Naik said Sunday's OPEC decision to hike crude oil output was welcome but added that it was too early to predict how global prices would move and what India's response would be. India last raised administered prices in March and analysts say a revision was overdue, with global prices surging to 10-year highs last week.While prices eased after OPEC's decision to hike output bythree percent, they are still too high at their current levels above $32 per barrel, for the comfort of major energy importers like India. "It has to be seen how market responds to it (OPEC's move)in the next 7-10 days," Naik said."By then the Prime Minister will be back. Then we will apply our mind to the issue of revision of prices," he said. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is currently on a visit to the US and is due back on September 19.Naik hinted that India would have no option but to raise prices. ".$25-26 (per barrel) is the band at which price hike will not have to be undertaken. then it is within my capacity to manage, but it is not so given the last 5-6 months (prices)," he said.
