OREANDA-NEWS. The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that an application for authorisation to market Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) was submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas from BP Exploration (Alpha) Limited (BPXA), a wholly owned subsidiary of BP plc on 11th June 2014 claiming investment of US\$477 million (including US\$ 259 million of Capex investment) and proposed investment of US\$2300 million.

To get marketing rights for transportation fuels, namely, Motor Spirit (MS), High Speed Diesel (HSD) and Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), an applicant must meet the requirements as per Clause 3 of Marketing Resolution dated 8th March, 2002. The requirements interalia, include investment or proposed investment of Rs. 2000 crore in exploration or production, refining, pipelines or terminals leading to additionality to the existing assets and /or creation of new assets in the eligible activities. The applicant also in case of proposed investment inter-alia has to achieve financial closure within five years, complete the project/projects in all respect within ten years, sign an agreement containing conditions and milestones, with the Government in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas/Regulatory Board with the provision of bank guarantee of Rs.500 crore for the proposed investment.

With reference to this application dated 11th June, 2014, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons has reported that British Petroleum (BP) share of expenditure was US\$508 million between financial year 2011-12 and financial year 2013-14 of which the capital expenditure (Capex) component and operational expenditure (Opex) component is US\$171 million and US\$337 million respectively. This did not meet the joint requirements of the Clause 3(I) and 3(IV) of the Marketing Resolution dated 8th March, 2002, and thus the application dated 11.6.2014 was rejected.