NEW DELHI, Jan 9: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today announced that a special group of ministers (GoM) would be constituted soon to prepare a blueprint for accelerating reforms in the oil sector. The group would interact with the private sector and professionals and incorporate the best international experience while working out the specifics for creating an ``India Hydrocarbon Vision 2020''.The GoM will submit its report to the PM within six weeks of its constitution. The PM also indicated that the Government was seriously examining the possibility of decanalisation of oil imports with a suitable tariff regime. The PM said this was in addition to fiscal incentives offered to foreign investors for exploration and production under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP).``We want our country to become a major hydrocarbon power of the world in the near future,'' Vajpayee said inaugurating the three-day international oil conference ``Petrotech '99'' organised by the state-owned Indian OilCorporation. He also said the current low prices of crude and petroleum products provided an opportunity for rapid price and tariff reforms.Vajpayee said the Government would soon chalk out a plan for restructuring the oil PSUs keeping in mind the strategic aspect of national oil security. Vajpayee said that hydrocarbon demand growth in the country had a direct bearing on the GDP growth which was expected to be in the region of 7 per cent in the current year. He said an aim of growth in demand for oil and gas increasing at a sustained rate of about eight per cent a year would ensure a healthy growth of the economy.He said the Government had taken definite steps to decontrol and deregulate the oil industry. A specific timetable had been announced to completely decontrol marketing by March 31, 2002, he said. The Government would review and accelerate these reforms to facilitate rapid development of the industry.Addressing the conference, Petroleum Minister K Ramamurthy told the plenary session that theGovernment would allow national oil companies to set up joint ventures for exploration in India as part of a new strategy to be announced soon.
