Parliamentary panel pulls up petroleum ministry, ONGC
Parliamentary panel pulls up petroleum ministry, ONGC
By UB
New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has pulled up the petroleum ministry for not facilitating the finalization of a crude oil sale agreement (Cosa) between Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) and refiners.
An informal deal for selling crude oil by ONGC to Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC) was to be replaced by the Cosa after March 2004, but the agreement could not be signed with oil marketing companies due to differences. ONGC continued to supply crude oil under the terms and conditions of the deal of 2003, which otherwise stood dissolved in March 2004.
“No sincere efforts have been made either by the company (ONGC) or the ministry to have the agreement signed," the Committee on Public Undertakings said in a report tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The committee felt that “instead of blaming the oil PSUs (public sector units) for not reaching a final agreement mutually, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas should have played an active and decisive role to take the matter to a logical conclusion".
It recommended negotiations to narrow differences and wanted the prevailing ad hoc functioning to end.
Differences are on sharing under recoveries on fuel sales by ONGC to refiners and the pricing method, which takes into account quality.
The panel also pulled up ONGC for delay in upgrading facilities for reducing the presence of basic sediments and water to below 0.2% in crude oil it sells to IOC.
It advised ONGC to achieve the desired basic sediments and water level uniformly in all its assets as soon as possible.
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