ONGC

April 6 (Reuters) - Deep Industries Ltd DEEI.BO:

• DEEP INDUSTRIES LTD - GETS LOA FOR ORDER WORTH 590 MILLION RUPEES FROM ONGC

Source text: ID:nnAZN4SP8BU

Further company coverage: DEEI.BO

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

SINGAPORE, March 31 (Reuters) - For tenders of crude and other oil products, please click:

Crude CRU/TENDA Naphtha NAP/TENDA Gasoline MOG/TENDA Jet/Diesel MDIS/TENDA Fuel Oil FUEL/TENDA

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

((jeslyn.lerh@thomsonreuters.com))

SINGAPORE, March 30 (Reuters) - For tenders of crude and other oil products, please click:

Crude CRU/TENDA Naphtha NAP/TENDA Gasoline MOG/TENDA Jet/Diesel MDIS/TENDA Fuel Oil FUEL/TENDA

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh;)

((jeslyn.lerh@thomsonreuters.com))

** Shares of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC.NS up 3.44% at 279.50 rupees, set to be the top weekly percentage gainer on the Nifty 50 index .NSEI

** For the week, Indian upstream oil co was up 4.94%, set for best week since late Jan 2026

** Continuing high oil prices with no end in sight to the Iran conflict have contributed to a jump in oil stocks

** CLSA ("outperform") on Tuesday upgraded ONGC's PT to Street-high 405 rupees from 315 rupees

** Underperformance compared to global peers is due to fear of a new windfall tax, said the brokerage; however, the new law passed last year limits the government's power to impose such a tax

** ONGC on avg rated "buy" by 30 analysts; median PT is 299 rupees - LSEG data

** YTD, stock up 16.3%

(Reporting by Abhirami G in Bengaluru)

((abhirami.g@thomsonreuters.com))

SINGAPORE, March 19 (Reuters) - For tenders of crude and other oil products, please click:

Crude CRU/TENDA Naphtha NAP/TENDA Gasoline MOG/TENDA Jet/Diesel MDIS/TENDA Fuel Oil FUEL/TENDA

(further updates on recent tenders closed)

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh;)

((jeslyn.lerh@thomsonreuters.com))

SINGAPORE, March 18 (Reuters) - For tenders of crude and other oil products, please click:

Crude CRU/TENDA Naphtha NAP/TENDA Gasoline MOG/TENDA Jet/Diesel MDIS/TENDA Fuel Oil FUEL/TENDA

(further updates on recent tenders closed)

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh;)

((jeslyn.lerh@thomsonreuters.com))

India File is published every Tuesday. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.

March 17 - By Nidhi C Sai, Editor Online Production, with global Reuters staff

War in the Middle East is straining supply of a fuel that has become indispensable to millions of Indian homes, laying bare how deep an impact geopolitics can now have on everyday lives anywhere in the world.

This week, India File looks at the struggle by households and businesses to adapt to the cooking gas supply crunch, and what it could mean for the future of India's energy mix - and its kitchens.

Plus, what began with a string of suspiciously similar bids for state contracts ended with an antitrust probe that exposed a decade of alleged collusion among some of India's biggest cement makers. Scroll down for more on that.

THIS WEEK IN ASIA

China's economy builds early momentum in 2026 as global risks mount

Trump seeks to delay meeting with China's Xi by 'a month or so'

Afghan Taliban says 400 killed in Pakistan air strike on Kabul hospital, Pakistan rejects claim

Australia central bank hikes rates in tight call as Iran war stokes inflation risk

Vietnam braces for flight cuts from April after China, Thailand ban jet fuel exports

INDIAN KITCHENS FALL VICTIM TO A DISTANT WAR

A conflict thousands of kilometres away is suddenly dictating what households can cook and what restaurants can serve as LPG supplies tighten across India.

The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route handling about a quarter of daily sea-borne energy supplies, including those bound for India, resulting in the South Asian nation's worst gas crisis in decades.

New Delhi has invoked emergency powers, directing refiners to maximise LPG production after state-owned Indian Oil Corp IOC.NS raised the price of a standard 14.2 kg household LPG cylinder by 7% in Delhi, the first increase in about a year.

The government also restricted LPG supplies for industry to ensure households have enough gas for cooking.

Restaurants nationwide are warning of disruptions as commercial gas cylinders become harder to secure.

"We have LPG stock for two days. We are working on contingencies," said Bert Mueller, founder of Mexican food chain California Burrito. "We are conserving gas and installing induction stoves at certain stores."

Hostels and factory canteens are simplifying meals to stretch limited fuel supplies. Read here how paying guest facilities are tackling the issue in Bengaluru.

Also read our last India File edition, which showcases how Indian companies have found themselves in the crosshairs of the war.

Meanwhile, households are taking their own precautions, with daily booking requests for LPG cylinders spiking as people rush to secure refills.

“Panic booking and hoarding behaviour have been driven by misinformation,” said Sujata Sharma, joint secretary at the oil ministry, in an appeal for calm.

Retailers report a surge in demand for induction stoves and electric cooking appliances as households look for backup options. Read here how online searches and sales of induction cooktops have jumped sharply.

Preliminary data suggests the supply chain dislocations are already reshaping consumption patterns: State fuel retailers sold about 1.15 million tonnes of LPG in the first half of March, down 17% from a year earlier and 26% from the previous month.

LPG DEPENDENCE REVEALS DEEP VULNERABILITIES

The cooking gas squeeze is exposing a deeper vulnerability in India’s energy system.

LPG consumption has surged over the past two decades, transforming from a largely urban fuel into a near-universal household necessity as a result of subsidised rural connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana initiative.

Household LPG connections have more than doubled since 2014, lifting annual consumption to more than 30 million metric tons, government and industry data show.

At the same time, pricing has become increasingly linked to global markets, leaving households far more exposed to international supply shocks. A standard cylinder that cost around 250-300 rupees in the mid-2000s now sells for about 913 rupees in Delhi.

India is diversifying supplies by securing cargoes from the United States, Norway, Canada and Russia, but the crisis highlights a structural gap: The country maintains strategic crude reserves but has no comparable strategic reserve for LPG, even though some 333 million households depend on it.

New Delhi is trying to leverage its relationship with Tehran to give some two dozen of its ships - six of them laden with LPG - safe passage through the Strait. However, sources say Iran wants two tankers that India seized last month in return, along with medical supplies.

At the policy level, the government is encouraging alternatives that could gradually reduce dependence on gas cylinders. Millions of urban households already have access to piped natural gas connections, and officials say several million LPG users could shift relatively easily.

Are Indian households beginning to move beyond the LPG cylinder, or is this just a temporary reaction to the global energy shock? Write to me at nidhi.csai@thomsonreuters.com

MARKET MATTERS

The deepening Middle East conflict has darkened the outlook for Asia's third-largest economy, with Citi Research and Nomura trimming their year-end targets for the Nifty 50 .NSEI, citing rising risks to growth and earnings.

They say the petrochemical and fertiliser industries are most exposed given India's dependence on imports from the region.

Read the full report by Reuters journalists Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M.

THIS WEEK'S MUST-READ

India’s antitrust watchdog has found evidence that three of the country's cement makers colluded over a decade to rig bids for state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation tenders, coordinating prices, divvying up orders and attempting to lock out foreign competitors.

A confidential investigation reviewed by Reuters uncovered a pattern of identically priced bids over multiple projects, which one executive sought to explain away as simply his “lucky number”.

Read this exclusive report by Reuters journalist Aditya Kalra.

(Reporting by Nidhi C Sai; Editing by Kevin Buckland)

((Nidhi.CSai@thomsonreuters.com; +91 70456 55251))

March 10 (Reuters) - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd ONGC.NS:

• UNITED DRILLING TOOLS LTD - SECURES ORDER VALUED AT 37.28 MILLION RUPEES FROM ONGC

Source text: ID:nNSE2DFHB9

Further company coverage: ONGC.NS

((reuters.briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

Adds share reaction in paragraph 12

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, March 9 (Reuters) - When India's largest oil explorer opened a tender for a cement order in 2018, it sensed something was off by the competing bids coming in: all of them were exactly 7,000 rupees per metric ton.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC.NS queried the bids and got a wry reply from an executive at India Cements. Seven was his "lucky number", he explained.

Suspicious, ONGC quietly lodged an antitrust case against three Indian cement companies.

The details of the case were outlined in a confidential investigation report and evidence that were shared with the companies in January and reviewed by Reuters, following a five-year probe that found a decade of price collusion targeting state-run ONGC.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) report said the "cartel period" ran 12 years between 2007 and 2018 for Dalmia Cement (Bharat), a unit of India's fourth-largest cement maker Dalmia Bharat DALB.NS, and rival Shree Digvijay SRDC.NS. India Cements ICMN.NS was part of the cartel for 2017-18.

The report identified thinly concealed attempts at collusion by Indian companies, signalling a growing willingness by the regulator to scrutinise domestic firms after months of high-profile investigations into foreign giants.

The Indian cement firms' bid rigging, discussions of supply patterns and efforts to oust foreign bidders were "substantiated from strong evidences in form of communication, meetings, emails, admission," said the 90-page report.

Local media outlet Zee Business reported the basic finding of wrongdoing last year, but Reuters is the first to report the detailed tactics and evidence that underpin CCI's investigation findings.

Dalmia Bharat declined to comment citing pendency of the matter before the CCI, but has previously said it is cooperating with the authorities. India Cements, which was acquired by No. 1 player UltraTech ULTC.NS in 2024, did not respond, and neither did Shree Digvijay, ONGC or the CCI.

The cement companies have been asked to respond to the report and the watchdog will then issue a final order within months. It has powers to drop any of the investigation findings, but fines can go as high as three times the companies' profit or 10% of their turnover for each year of wrongdoing.

In fiscal year 2024-25, Dalmia Bharat recorded annual revenues of $1.5 billion, Shree Digvijay $79 million and India Cements $444 million.

After the Reuters story, shares of Shree Digvijay extended losses to fall as much as 5.4%, while India Cements was down 4.4% and Dalmia Bharat down 3.5%.

'SUPPORTED BY THE NUMEROLOGY FACTOR OF 7'

While Apple, Amazon and other foreign firms have faced intense antitrust scrutiny, the cement case highlights CCI's focus on big Indian firms from key economic sectors.

"Tech cases have been a growing focus for CCI but there is increased cognizance within the government to tackle breaches at state-run firms and in public procurement," said Gautam Shahi, a competition law partner at Indian law firm Dua Associates.

In January, Reuters reported an antitrust investigation found four major Indian steelmakers, including Tata Steel and JSW Steel, colluded on prices.

Before filing the case in 2020, ONGC noticed bids had come in at the exact same or very similar pricing in four tenders for oil well cement.

For example, the 2018 tender for 170,000 tons of cement saw all three companies quoting a price of 7,000 rupees, or 7,350 rupees per ton with taxes, for different states.

That prompted ONGC to issue a warning in late 2019, with a notice to India Cements, contained in the report, saying the identically priced bids suggested violation of competition law.

India Cements defended its bid in a written submission on its letterhead to ONGC that year, citing global trends as well as the "lucky number".

"The financial bid was also supported by the numerology factor of 7", the company letter stated.

SUBMITTING BIDS TOGETHER

The CCI's investigation puts the onus of breaches on eight top executives including former managing director of Shree Digvijay, Rajeev Nambiar; billionaire chairman of Dalmia Bharat, Y.H. Dalmia; and former managing director of India Cements, N. Srinivasan, who is also one of India's high-profile business figures. None of the executives responded to Reuters queries.

The CCI also cited Shree Digvijay senior vice president Prem R. Singh, whose testimony said "the prime objective for quoting the identical price was to allocate almost equal volumes and revenue amongst companies".

Singh visited rival Dalmia's office for "directly assisting" them in their tender filing in 2018, the CCI report said, citing messages sent by Singh to Nambiar, his then managing director. Singh did not respond to requests for comment.

Shree Digvijay and Dalmia were "actively involved" in calculating the rail freight distance of their factories from ONGC cement delivery destinations. They then bid accordingly to avoid competition and divided territories amongst themselves.

Excel sheets were also made comparing distances to decide "volume sharing" among rivals, the report showed.

TARGETING FOREIGN FIRMS

Shree Digvijay and Dalmia also targeted foreign firms who bid by flagging "prickly issues", said the report.

They repeatedly filed complaints with the Indian government about foreign bidders' lack of certification and how New Delhi should promote domestic firms over foreign ones.

Foreign bidders included Texas-based Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services provider now known as SLB SLB.N, UAE-based Classic Oil Field Chemicals, and Bell Weather, the report showed. The three companies did not respond to queries.

The investigators concluded that the companies tried at least once to pressure ONGC to cancel foreign bids by deciding to "restrict supply" of cement to the oil explorer, which breaches antitrust laws.

In 2019, one executive wrote to another: "Need your support in making them (ONGC) understand that they cannot throw Indian parties in bath tub."

The companies could "not digest the fact that a foreign bidder" can be awarded a tender, the CCI said.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sam Holmes)

((Email: aditya.kalra@tr.com; X: @adityakalra;))

By Nidhi Verma and Jarrett Renshaw

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - Indian refiners are buying millions of barrels of prompt Russian crude oil cargoes as the South Asian nation seeks to navigate an oil supply crunch triggered by the Middle East conflict, six sources familiar with the matter said.

For months, the U.S. has pressured New Delhi to avoid buying Russian barrels as Washington seeks to reduce money flowing to Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.

India is vulnerable to energy supply shocks, with crude stocks covering only about 25 days of demand. India gets about 40% of its oil imports from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz.

India was the top buyer of Russian seaborne crude after Moscow's 2022 Ukraine invasion, but in January, its refiners started to reduce purchases under pressure from Washington.

Cutting Russian oil purchases helped New Delhi avoid 25% tariffs and clinch an interim trade deal with the U.S.

It is unclear whether the United States has allowed India to increase Russian purchases to offset potential Middle Eastern supply losses.

A source directly invloved with the matter said India had approached U.S. President Donald Trump's administration seeking approval to buy Russian crude imports due to the Iran conflict.

India's oil and foreign ministries did not respond to Reuters emails seeking comments. The White House and the U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

State refiners Indian Oil Corp IOC.NS, Bharat Petroleum Corp BPCL.NS, Hindustan Petroleum Corp HPCL.NS and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd MRPL.NS are talking to traders for prompt delivery of Russian cargoes, according to the Reuters sources.

One of the sources said Indian state refiners have bought about 20 million barrels of Russian oil from traders so far.

HPCL and MRPL last received Russian oil in November, according to data obtained from industry sources.

The traders are selling Russian Urals to India at a premium of $4-$5 per barrel to Brent on a delivered basis for arrival at Indian ports in March and early April, three of the sources said.

This is in contrast to a discount of about $13 per barrel for cargoes traded in February, traders said.

HPCL had bought two cargoes of Russian oil at a $13 discount before the war started on February 28.

"India refiners are back in the market...nowadays more than prices, availability of molecules is the issue," said one of the traders involved in Russian oil sales to India.

This source said Reliance Industries RELI.NS also approached his company for purchase of prompt Russian oil cargoes.

Refiners in India had already started tapping Russian oil aboard vessels floating off the country's coast to make up for the loss of Middle Eastern crude, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said earlier in the day.

Indian refiners did not immediately respond to Reuters emails sent out after business hours.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)

((nidhi.verma@thomsonreuters.com; X: @nidhi712;))

SINGAPORE, March 4 (Reuters) - For tenders of crude and other oil products, please click:

Crude CRU/TENDA Naphtha NAP/TENDA Gasoline MOG/TENDA Jet/Diesel MDIS/TENDA Fuel Oil FUEL/TENDA

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)

((jeslyn.lerh@thomsonreuters.com))

SINGAPORE, March 3 (Reuters) - For tenders of crude and other oil products, please click:

Crude CRU/TENDA Naphtha NAP/TENDA Gasoline MOG/TENDA Jet/Diesel MDIS/TENDA Fuel Oil FUEL/TENDA

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh, Editing by Louise Heavens)

((jeslyn.lerh@thomsonreuters.com))