HYDERABAD, FEBRUARY 9: Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, Santosh Kumar Gangwar today said dismantling of administrative pricing mechanism (APM) in the petroleum sector had already begun under the new economic reforms and the refining sector had also been delicensed."The sub groups constituted on the different sectors as part of `Vision-2025' had submitted their reports and the group of ministers constituted for the purpose is currently in the process of finalising its report," Gangwar said.The group comprises ministers of petroleum, finance and external affairs and deputy chairman of planning commission. Experts from petroleum sector, scientists and technologists from public and private oil sector compnaies from India and abroad are attending the three-day meet organised by the Centre for High Technology (CHT) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).Gangwar said India at present imports 70 per cent of its crude oil requirments and exploration efforts in the country were given a boost with the approval of the award of 25 exploration blocks under the New Exploration Licencing Policy (NELP). This included seven deep water offshore blocks, 16 shallow water offshore blocks and two onland blocks.The award of the deep water blocks for the first time in the country had opened up a new horizon for oil and gas exploration, he said adding the minimum committed investment in the first phase of exploration in these 25 blocks will be around $ 250 million.He hoped that the investment figures will go up several folds depending upon the size of discoveries in these blocks and said the government had also commenced negotiations for finalisation of contracts for 12 discovered fields and had accorded approval for finalisation of contracts in respect of two exploration blocks in Gujarat.The refining capacity has seen a substantial increase and now stands at the level of about 110 million tonnes per annum (mmtpa), the minister said. Apart from the large capacity private sector refinery of Reliance Petroleum Ltd at Jamnagar, new refinery under 'Assam accord' at Numaligarh, Koyali Refinery of IOC had been expanded by three mmtpa, Mangalore refinery by six mmpta, Mathura refinery by 0.5 mmpta, he said.The Union minister said that though the availability of imported crude may not be a problem, its quality is expected to cause concern to downstream refinery sector and hence the government had recently introduced stringent laws and environmental regulations on vehicular emissions.Gangwar said as part of the eco-friendly measures, low suplur diesel and unleaded petrol were being supplied throughout the country.Stating that the quality of transport fuel-petrol and high speed diesel needed to be upgraded in a phased manner, he said the refinery sector needed to select right processes and technologies and invest in additional secondary processing units at high capital costs.Technology would play a vital role in influencing the product mix, which would have to be in line with the market demand, he said adding various oil companies had already taken steps in diversification into petrochemical and power generation.Executive director, CHT, Ravi Kumar, said the present meet with the theme 'Refining Industry in 21st century - Challenges and strategies' would discuss on topics such as process development, energy conservation and loss control and environment friendly fuels.Chairman and MD of HPCL, H L Zutshi, said all problems haunting the oil sector could be solved through a mix of innovation, regulation and market signals. "As markets transcend National boundaries, there is a need to understand global trends," he said.
