The appointment of 'Advisory Committee on Synergy in Energy', proposed to be headed by national advisory council member V Krishnamurthy, has not yet got the cabinet secretary's clearance, Aiyar said.

"I had hoped that the committee would be able to complete its work by December but it is more than one and half months and the committee is yet to be constituted.

We will have to wait till end of January for the recommendations to come," he said.

Aiyar had mandated the committee to suggest ways of ending the "destructive" competition among state-run oil firms.

The Advisory Committee on Synergy in Energy would look at options of merging two or more companies to create oil behemoths that have financial capabilities to match the Chinese firms in the international arena.

Aiyar had taken a grim view of inter-PSU competition in the oil sector and had favoured pooling in of resources.

The committee included Rajiv Gandhi loyalist G K Arora, former divestment commission chairman G V Ramakrishna, former advisor to finance minister Vijay Kelkar, former ONGC chairman B C Bora and former BPCL chairman U Sunderarajan.

On table is a proposal for merging exploration firm Oil India Ltd with country's largest refiner Indian Oil Corp while BPCL and HPCL are merged into ONGC to create two oil behemoths.