To overcome the severe balance of payment crisis
of 1991, the government of India took resort to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
prescriptions to bail out its ailing economy. The
liberalisation process which had been started earlier
(at least in hydrocarbon sector) was accelerated and
extended to other sectors of the economy in the name of
structural adjustment process (SAP). The main features
of SAP were i) privatisation and ii) opening up of
economy to foreign companies. However, much before this
exercise, the petroleum sector was opened to foreign
companies. Though the declared policy of the government
of the post independent India was to develop this vital
industry under public sector, in actual practice, the
industry from its inception was very much dependent on
foreign technology, capital and even on expert
personnel. Over the years, the foreign involvement in
different critical stages like exploration, production,
transportation and refining has increased.
Indian petroleum industry in the post
independent period (1947-2001) it may be divided into
three distinct phases
- (i) early phase (1947 to 1969)-
when the government consolidated its control over the
industry with Soviet assistance;
- (ii) development phase
(1970 to 1989)- in this period the US companies played
dominant role replacing the Soviets and
- (iii) the
economic liberalisation phase of 1990s.
Historically, the Indian petroleum industry was
controlled by few Anglo-American companies. They
maintained their dominance till end of 1950s. After
independence (1947), the newly independent state wanted
to play significant role in this vital industry. The
industry policy resolution of 1948 and 1956 have clearly
documented the government's aspiration and future plans
for core industries like petroleum. All future
development of petroleum industry was reserved for
public sector undertakings. But foreign assistance was a
necessity at least in the early stage. As collaboration
with Anglo- American oil majors were ruled out, other
alternatives were explored.
At that time the
government considered four options as under for the
development of its petroleum industry.
- seek
assistance of a great power like Soviet Union,
- collaborate with a small country like Rumania
- explore the possibility of a government to
government co-operation with other small but neutral
countries like Austria which had developed sufficient
technical expertise in petroleum industry by that time;
- try and develop the industry through self-help
by employing technicians and bringing necessary
machinery from which ever source available.
Of
the above four alternatives, though co-operation with a
small but neutral power like Austria was thought the
best option, the government went for the first
alternative. Thus the Soviets took charge of the nascent
oil industry. However, their influence diminished over
the years. Subsequently, US companies and multilateral
funding agencies like World Bank played increasingly
significant roles in this sector.
In the early
seventies, the government of India nationalised the
refinery and marketing facilities of three foreign oil
companies. Out of those three Burmah -Shell -, the
British company desperately tried to stay in India even
as junior partner to a joint venture with a national oil
company . At that time Cochin and Madras refineries were
running under joint venture between the govt. of India
and foreign oil companies. But the government did not
accept Burmah-Shells' proposal. The other two American
companies - namely Caltex and Standard Vaccum were
themselves eager to leave the country due to their
internal organisational restructuring and domestic
compulsions. The government of Indias decision to
nationalise them had nothing to do with their departure
from the marketing and refining sector. However, they
kept their linkages alive with the industry through
crude supplies.
Apart from nationalisation of
foreign companies, there were other important
developments during seventies and eighties which needs
to be mentioned here to understand the liberalisation
process of this industry.
- i) As offshore
exploration got more importance (though substantial
areas of onshore sedimentary basins were unexplored),
involvement of US companies increased replacing the
Soviets. In offshore exploration and exploitation,
India's dependence on American and other Western
companies were almost total.
- ii) In 1974, the
government offered 7 million acres of Bay of Bengal to
Natamas Carlsburg Co. of USA for offshore exploration
and production. A contract was entered into between the
US company and Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) for
the same. Subsequently another contract between Readings
and Bates, USA and ONGC for Kutch basin(Gujarat) was
signed. It was agreed that initially the foreign company
would have 61% share in the joint venture and the price
of the crude if produced would be based on Indonesian
and Persian Gulf crude. 40% of the total crude would go
to the US company as "Cost Oil" towards recovery of
their expenses. 65% of the remaining crude would be
ONGCs share and rest 35% would go to the US company.
However, the venture was unsuccessful.
- iii)
Since 1980, the government started to offer in a
systematic way different sedimentary basins to foreign
oil companies for exploration and production. Better
basins with liberal terms were offered in successive
rounds. For example, in the third round (1986) where few
major foreign companies participated, the government
exempted them from paying any royalty payment. Moreover,
no minimum expenditure commitment were to be made and
ONGC/OIL was given the option to take minority stake
(40%) in the joint venture, if the fields were found
viable. However, there was no breakthrough in
exploration by the foreign companies.
- iv) Till
1990, the government had invited four proposals for
bidding. Due to political changes finalisation of
contracts against the fourth round of bidding was
deferred. One noticeable feature of the fourth round was
that, Indian private companies (along with foreign
partners) were allowed to participate for the first
time. As no major field was discovered by foreign
companies, the government over exploited the existing
fields. At a time when the global crude price was
declining, Indias crude production was increased
steeply from 10.51 MMTPA in 1980-81 to 34.00 MMTPA in
1989-90. The oil bearing wells were 'flogged to death'
and as a consequence, production fell to 26.92 MMTPA in
1992-93.
- v) In the eighties, the government
allowed Indian private companies to enter into refining
sector initially as a joint venture partner with a
public sector refining company. Later, Reliance
Industries Ltd.(RIL) was allowed to build on their own
the largest refinery in the country.
- vi) For
refining technology, the the public sector refineries,
during 1980s, were almost completely dependant on one
American company M/s Universal Oil Products (UOP).UOP
did not transfer their technology to the refineries.They
'leased' it simultaneously to more than one Indian
refineries at a time. Thus, the technology could not be
absorbed.
- viii) The marketing policy followed by
the public sector companies has made the economy and the
society completely dependent on petroleum products. It
has successfully replaced/barred entry of other
alternative energy sources including natural gas.
Against this background, we shall discuss the
effect of post 1991 economic liberalisation on this
vital industry. Our analysis will focus on (a)
exploration and production (b) refining (c) marketing.
a) Exploration and Production:
i) To
begin with, the government in early nineties has changed
the much awaited legal status of the Oil and Natural Gas
Commission (ONGC) by converting it into a Corporation
there by giving it more autonomy. Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation Ltd (ONGCL) - a limited company governed by
the Indian Company Acts was formed. Earlier, ONGC was
governed by the Acts of the Parliament.
ii) As
the government decided in favor of more involvement of
private sector in exploration and production, there was
a need to establish an independent regulatory body that
could effectively supervise the activities of all the
companies - private and public. Thus the Directorate
General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) was set up in April
1993.Since then, the privatisation process of the
exploration and production activities have been
accelerated.
iii) The most noteworthy policy
shift was the decision of the government to involve
private and foreign companies in the development of
already discovered fields.In the first offer of such
fields in August 1992,contracts for 5 medium sized and
13 small- sized fields have been awarded. Enron Oil and
Gas Company, Reliance Industries Ltd, Command Petroleum,
Videocon Petroleum Ltd, Ravva Oil Pte Ltd were few such
major foreign and Indian private companies . ONGCL and
OIL's share in those JVs were limited to 40% only.The
estimated oil and gas production from these fields were
360 billion barrels and 50 billion cubic meters
respectively.The most promising fields of Panna, Mukta
and Mid & South Tapti which had been successfully
explored earlier by ONGC were offered to Enron -Reliance
consortium without reimbursing the past exploration
expenses to ONGC.More over the government agreed to
purchase the produced crude from the consortium at the
international price plus a premium of $4 per barrel as
the sulphur content was low.
In the second offer
for the development of 8 medium and 33 small size
fields, negotiations for the award of contracts are at
an advanced stage.
iv) From 1991 to 1996, the
government had held five rounds (fourth, fifth, sixth,
seventh and eighths) of bidding for exploration acreages
offering as many as 126 blocks, ranging in sizes from a
few hundred square kilometers to over 50,000 sq
kilometers.11 contracts have been awarded. Some of the
important companies which have been either awarded
contracts or participated in the exploration round were:
Shell, Occidental, Amoco, Enron). However,all these
efforts could not improve the crude and gas reserve of
India. In 1990-91, the crude oil reserve was 739 MMT
which has declined to 658 MMT in 1999-2000.The
corresponding natural gas reserve figures were 686 bcm
and 628 bcm respectively. In that period, the crude
production also declined from 33.02 MMT to 31.95 MMT and
in 1999-2000, India had to import 44.99 MMT crude. The
above figures clearly indicates that the government
policy of involving the private parties- both Indian and
foreign offering liberal terms did not help the upstream
petroleum sector. On the contrary, reserves and
production have drastically fallen in the post
liberalisation period.
v) Alarmed with this
situation, the government decided to further liberalise
its terms to lure Indian and foreign companies to
exploration and production. A new Exploration Licensing
Policy (NELP) was formulated by the government in
1997-98 to provide a 'level playing field' in which all
parties (including national oil companies) would compete
on equal terms for the award of exploration acreage. A
Model Production Sharing Contract (MPSC) was framed for
the finalisation of the contract.
Some of the
incentives announced by the government were:
- No
custom duty on imports required for petroleum
operations.
- No minimum expenditure commitment
during the exploration period.
- No mandatory
state participation.
- No carried interest by
National Oil Companies
- Freedom to sell crude
crude oil and natural gas in domestic market at market
related prices.
- Biddable cost recovery limit
upto 100%
- No cess on crude oil production
- Royalty payment: 12.5% for onland areas,10% for
offshore and 5% for deep water areas.
- Liberal
depreciation provisions
- Seven years tax holidays
from the commencement of production.
If we
compare the fiscal incentives offered in the NELP with
the incentives declared in earlier production sharing
contracts ( ref to the third round of bidding,1986),
these are not more liberal than those already offered.
But in all the earlier contracts, participation of
national oil companies in the JV was mandatory in the
event of successful crude/gas find during exploration.
This clause has been deleted in the new policy. More
over as per the new policy, ONGCL and OIL will have to
compete at par with the private companies for
exploration and production of new acreage.
vi)
The new exploration license policy (NELP-I) was finally
launched in January 1999.Record numbers of blocks had
been offered for exploration including 10 in onland,26
offshore upto 400 meters depth and 12 deep offshore off
the east coast.Out of these, 24 blocks were awarded to
different parties. ONGCL on its own bagged 5 blocks and
with GAIL and IOCL one and two more blocks respectively.
Among the private parties, RIL-NIKO consortium got the
maximum 12 blocks. In December, 2000, government again
announced NELP-II and invited proposals for 25 blocks.
For the first time,8 deep water blocks on west coast and
prolific blocks of Assam and Gujarat had been included
under NELP. 23 blocks have been awarded to different
companies of which ONGC consortia has bagged 16 oil and
gas blocks while Reliance-Hardy Oil combine won 4
blocks. ONGCL on its own bagged 6 blocks and OIL one
block.
vii) And, for the first time in April
2001, the government has offered 7 blocks for
competitive bidding for the exploration and production
of Coalbed Methane (CBM).The incentives package has been
framed in line with those already offered in NELP.
The liberalisation policies followed so far has
not shown any positive result in exploration and
production sector. In a desperate bid, the government
has accelerated the space of reform. How the national
oil companies adjust to this rapid changing situation is
to be watched closely.
b) Refining
In
the eighties, the government decided to invite private
companies in the refining sector.
The private
company Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL ) has become the
second largest player in oil refining sector with 27
MMTPA state of the art refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat.
Apart from approving new refineries in the private and
joint venture(involving Indian and foreign companies)
there has not been any major policy change in the
establishment of new refineries in the nineties.
However, from June 1998, the refining sector has been
delicensed. Moreover, private and joint sector
refineries have been permitted to import crude oil
freely without import license for actual use in their
own refineries. This will have adverse effect on the
operating cost of public sector refineries should
international crude price falls below the domestic crude
price.
c) Marketing
In the nineties,
major policies as under in the marketing of petroleum
products with far reaching implications have been
announced by the government.
i) To attract
private investment in exploration, the government has
announced that any company investing nearly US$400
million (Rs20 billion) in exploration and production or
other specified avenue, would be eligible for marketing
rights for petroleum products in India. This will allow
the international oil majors to enter into the lucrative
marketing sector.
ii) In September 1997,the
government has decided to dismantle Administrative
Pricing Mechanism (APM) in phased manner.By April, 2002
it will be fully dismantalled and prices of petroleum
products will be determined on the basis of import
parity system.
The existing system of petroleum
pricing which is also called APM (natural gas was kept
out of this pricing mechanism) has its roots in the
early seventies when Shipping Corporation of India (SCI)
took loan from the World Bank to purchase oil carriers.
The World Bank then recommended a 'cost plus' pricing
formula to SCI for freight calculation. The same
principle in the name of 'retention concept' was
later(1976) introduced to crude and petroleum products
pricing system. Accordingly, the price of indigenous
crude was based on operating cost plus 15% post tax
return on capital employed. And oil refineries and
marketing companies calculated the price of their
products on the basis of operating cost plus 12% post
tax on net worth.
The other important component
of APM - a complicated pricing formula is 'cross
subsidisation mechanism' which has enabled the Indian
oil industry to establish its dominance in the energy
sector in the last few decades.
Cross subsidised
petroleum products competed with other energy sources
like coal , and penetrated into their domain. Thus low
priced kerosene has replaced vegetable oil for
illuminating lamps and coal for coocking, subsidised LPG
has become an essential household fuel, long distance
trucks fed with cheap diesel easily competed with the
railways in freight movement and subsidised naptha made
the coal technology unviable for fertiliser production.
This pricing policy backed with elaborate distribution
system has made the entire economy almost completely
dependent on petroleum products.
The 'retention
concept' on the other hand did not allow the PSUs become
sick. Thus investors' ( mainly multilateral funding
agencies like World Bank, ADB etc) fund were safe.
Now APM has lost its relevance.The economy has
become dependent on petroleum and private parties are
not happy with 12-15% assured return. They want more.
Hence APM is dismantled in a phased manner.
In
this changed situation, the refining and marketing PSUs
with old refineries and decades of 'retention' culture
might find it difficult to face competition in the post
APM phase. And if international crude price falls as we
saw during late eighties, ONGCL and OIL will also become
uncompetitive unless they adjust themselves quickly with
the changing situation.
Our research shows that
in the past four decades, ONGCL and OIL have
increasingly become dependent on foreign companies in
all major operational activities. Moreover, there was no
major breakthrough in any oil or gas fields in the last
thirty years though till last year, most prolific fields
were kept reserved for national oil companies. With the
introduction of NELP, those privileges have been
withdrawn and chances of success by national oil
companies have also decreased. Thus operational expenses
will rise with stagnant/falling production. Added to
this, private sector refineries will not be bound to
purchase crude oil from national oil companies. They
will search for better quality crude at cheaper rates
from alternative sources. In such a situation, ONGCL and
OIL will find it difficult to survive in the competitive
market. However, if the government compels the public
sector oil refineries to purchase ONGCL/OIL crude at a
higher rate, those refineries will be uncompititive
vis-a-vis private sector refineries. Existing public
sector refineries will also face many more hurdles in
the de-regulated economy. The disadvantages of the
economy of scale and finding matching crude at
competitive price for old refineries will be the major
challenges before the refinery sector.
Economy of Scale: Except one in Koyali (Gujarat) all other
fourteen public sector refineries are small in size
(less than 8MMTPA capacity).Their capacities ranges
between 0.65 MMTPA at Digboi (Assam) and 12.50MMTPA at
Koyali(Gujarat).And most of these refineries were built
before 1980s.Compared to this, the Reliance refinery
built in 1999 with state of the art technology has a
capacity of 27MMTPA. It is estimated that a new complex
of 6.0 MMTPA refinery with Hydrocracker and delayed
Coker as the major secondary processing units and
inhouse power/hydrogen production will have a net margin
of about US$5.8/bbl.If the capacity is increased to
9.0MMTPA, the net margin will improve to around
US$6.3/bbl.However, this estimate varies depending on
the price of crude and petroleum products.
In
September 2001,the refining margins of IOCL refineries
was only 30 cents per barrel compared to RPL's margin of
US$1 per barrel. In 2000-01, IOCL had to forgo over
US$400 million on account of lower refining margins
compared to the earlier years. The effect of
de-regulation is clearly visible now.
Matching
of crude oil: Under the deregulated market, the
refineries will have to pay import parity prices for the
crudes and any fluctuations in the actual crude price
will not be absorbed as before by the 'oil pool account'
(a part of APM).Hence selection of proper crude oil for
a particular refinery will of vital importance. In the
emerging scenario of lower availability of sweet crude,
dependence on heavy and sour crude oil is bound to
increase.Selecting and sourcing matching crude for
fifteen different refineries for optimum production to
meet stringent environmental regulations and
international quality standards, will be a major
challenge to public sector refineries.
Abbreviations:
MMTPA= Million
Metric Ton per Annum
One Ton= 1,000 Kilogram
BCM
= Billion Cubic Meter
ADB= Asian Development Bank
APM= Administered Pricing Mechanism
GAIL= Gas
Authority of India
IOCL= Indian Oil Corporation Ltd
RIL = Reliance Industries Ltd
RPL= Reliance
Petroleum Ltd
OIL= Oil India Ltd
ONGC = Oil and
Natural Gas Commission
ONGCL = Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation Ltd
PSU = Public Sector Undertakings
References:
www.dghindia.com
www.india-nelp2.com
www.petroleum.nic.com
PIRG Update, November 1997
The Statesman,18th July,2001
The Economic Times, 26th September,2001
T
he Hindu Survey of Indian Industries,1999
M.A Pathan, Chairman, IOCL,3rd Annual Indian Oil and Gas
Conference,2-4 December,1998, New Delhi
Dipanakr Dey, State and Foreign Involvement in the Development of
Indian Petroleum Industry between 1970 and 1989, PhD thesis, University of Calcutta,1999.