New Delhi: Government is constantly monitoring and keeping under careful review prices of all sensitive petroleum products, Lok Sabha was informed today (Dec 9, 2004).

Replying to queries during Question Hour, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mani Shankar Aiyar, said steps have been taken to contain the impact of such increases on domestic consumer prices of four products, namely PDS (Public Distribution System) kerosene, domestic LPG, diesel and petrol.

With a view to modulating the impact of high international prices on domestic consumer prices of petrol and diesel, a price band mechanism was put in operation as per which Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) can effect price revisions based on the previous fortnight's average international price, he said.

In reply to another question, Aiyar said besides concentrating in areas of core competence, ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corp) was also exploring various options for diversification of its activities by forward and backward integration, including power generation.

In this context, he said, ONGC has signed MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with Governments of Gujarat and Karnataka for setting up Special Economic Zones at Dahej and Mangalore respectively to facilitate development of required infrastructure for ONGC's value addition projects.