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Petroleum Minister Murli Deora
introduced a new Petroleum and Natural
Gas Regulatory Board Bill in the Rajya
Sabha (Upper House of the Parliament)
to create a new regulator of
downstream petroleum and natural gas
investments. This bill will cover
refining, processing, storage,
transportation, distribution,
marketing, and sale of petroleum and
natural gas products. Deora said that
the bill draws from a Parliamentary
Committee recommendation and that he
has included 47 of the 49 of them. The
Parliamentary Committee had strongly
recommended a regulator, which will
manage a strict code of conduct in
companies. These will include pipeline
access code, concept of contract
carriers, service obligations of city
or local gas distributors, and
methodology for transportation
tariffs. The former National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government
had conceptualized and introduced a
bill called the Petroleum Regulatory
Board Bill. This bill is repackaged by
the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
to include natural gas.
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