Help arrives in India
India's government has sweetened its upstream terms, hoping to spur much more activity
India needs its own upstream to produce more energy. Companies are willing and now the government thinks it has struck a formula to spur the investment. Domestic firms still dominate. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), plus another government-run explorer, Oil India Limited (Oil), have been stalwarts, while private-sector firms Reliance Industries (RIL) and Cairn Energy bite at their heels. But, so far, their best efforts haven't been sufficient to keep a hefty import bill from rising still further—about four-fifths of the oil and gas India consumes is extracted abroad. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the regulatory division of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, s
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