The Petroleum Ministry on Wednesday sought over Rs 19,620 crore in compensation for state

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retailers IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and HPCL, which sold cooking fuels below cost in 2009-10 fiscal.

Oil Secretary S Sundareshan met Expenditure Secretary Sushma Nath seeking Rs 19,620.95 crore to fully compensate oil marketing companies' revenue loss on PDS kerosene and domestic LPG in 2009-10, official sources said.

The three firms lost Rs 46,051 crore on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene below imported cost in 2009-10.

He told Nath that upstream firms Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd are meeting the entire Rs 14,430 crore loss on petrol and diesel.

Sources said upstream firms, which are meeting 32 per cent of the total revenue loss, cannot contribute anything beyond this.

The ministry reminded of the finance ministry's commitment to meet the entire deficit on LPG and kerosene. Of the Rs 31,621 crore loss on the two cooking fuel, the finance ministry has so far given only Rs 12,000 crore in cash to the refiners.

Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum currently lose Rs 272.5 crore per day on selling fuel below cost and may end the current fiscal with a Rs 90,150 crore revenue loss.

They currently sell petrol at a loss of Rs 6.63 a litre while the loss is Rs 6.25 per litre on diesel, Rs 19.74 per litre on PDS kerosene and Rs 254.37 per 14.2-kg LPG cylinder.