On a review of the recently announced operations of Special Market Operations (SMOs) exclusively for public sector oil Companies to meet the unprecedented escalation in international crude oil prices, Reserve Bank of India has decided to enhance the overall ceiling of open market operations to Rs 1,500 crore on any single day.

The RBI had decided on May 30, to put in place a SMOs for the smooth functioning of state owned oil Companies as well as financial Markets.

Oil CompaniesIOC, BPCL and HPCL were together selling oil bonds upto Rs 1,000 crore a day to RBI and were getting foreign exchange for importing crude oil. However, IOC being the country's largest importer of crude oil had represented to RBI that it needs more forex to carry out its crude oil import transactions.

The central bank's move to increase the limit to Rs 1500 crore a day will help all three oil Companies meet their daily requirement of foreign exchange. We have already sold oil bonds worth $800 million since the first RBI notification. Currently, the avilability of oil bonds for sale to RBI is only till June end. We require more oil bonds to liquidate with RBI for getting sufficient forex for our crude oil import requirements, director (finance), IOC, SV Narasimhan told FE.