India Oil Min: To Cover Subsidy Losses Of State-Run Oil Cos

The Indian government will protect state-run oil companies from the losses they suffer due to selling products at a discount, Indian Oil Minister Murali Deora said. “On the pricing of the sensitive petroleum products, I can assure you that the financial health of the public-sector oil companies will be protected by the government,” Deora was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Oil Ministry. State-run oil marketing companies, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (530965.BY), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (500547.BY) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (500104.BY) and explorers Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (500312.BY), Oil India Ltd. and GAIL (India) Ltd. (532155.BY) share revenue losses for selling oil products at a discount to the public, as mandated by the government to control inflation. For last fiscal, India government took the burden of the state-run oil companies under-recoveries and issued oil bonds worth 712.92 billion rupees (US$14.61 billion), while upstream oil state-run companies contributed INR320 billion in price discounts, the minister said. (June 27, 2009)