Though India is yet to make its stand on Iran oil official, Indian refiners have reportedly already started cutting down on imports.

India on Monday received its cheapest LNG under a long-term deal as Russia began shipping natural gas at a delivered price of close to $7 per million British thermal unit.

While IOC will take 38 per cent, GAIL will pick 11 per cent stake in the proposed 5-million tonne a year liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Dhamra by 2018-19.

\"In the next six years, we need to spend Rs 1.70-1.80 trillion on refinery expansions, new petrochemical projects which are coming up and expenditure being incurred on natural gas, besides some exploration blocks that we are actively looking at,\" IOC Chairman B Ashok said.

India's biggest gas importer Petronet LNG Ltd has plans to set up a Rs 5,000 crore LNG import terminal at Kutubdia islands in Bangladesh as it looks to build terminals to feed demand in neighbouring countries.

India plans to shift to a gas-based economy by boosting domestic production and buying cheap liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the world's third-biggest oil importer seeks to curb its greenhouse emissions, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

S Varadarajan, who rose up the ranks from a junior officer to head one of India's leading oil marketing companies, will leave behind a well-oiled legacy when he retires next year.

Investments in oil and gas exploration are crucial for India because they would make it less dependent on foreign oil and give the economy a considerable boost.

New Delhi would for the first time use a 10 per cent reduction permissible under a 25-year contract with Qatar's RasGas to import up to 7.5 million tonnes a year of the super cooled fuel, said the source.

MMTC wants to capitalise on international gas prices halving to about USD 7-8 per million British thermal unit and import LNG in ships at spot or current rates.

\"Main reason for jump in net profit was higher volumes of imports and higher trading margin on spot and short term cargoes at Dahej terminal in Gujarat,\" Petronet MD and CEO AK Balyan said.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is in talks to buy a 26 per cent stake in Indian Oil Corp's Rs 4,320 crore liquefied natural gas (LNG) import plant at Ennore in Tamil Nadu.

The attempt by India and four other Asian countries to form a club of LNG buyers is praiseworthy. It will not be easy, however, for Asian countries to form a grouping of LNG importers. Many energy industry experts suggest it would be much easier for these countries to become partners in developing new LNG supplies.

Days after coming to power for the first time in May 2004, the United Progressive Alliance government formed its first empowered group of ministers to try and revive the project, but even as the UPA is coming to the end of its second term, Dabhol is again sinking.

Besides parity in tax rates with crude oil, the industry players want gas to be in the list of products covered by GST.

The Dabhol LNG terminal has been commissioned, two decades after it was planned.  Though it would be very difficult for Ratnagiri Gas and Power, the owner of Dabhol power project, to generate power on imported gas, it can earn substantial fees if the terminal operates at full capacity.

The implications of the US, the world's largest energy consumer, becoming self-reliant in gas and less dependent on oil imports are enormous - it is being bandied the biggest event in the global energy market after the oil shocks of the 1970s.