ONGC will continue as the operator of the deepwater block, KG-DWN-2004/6 with a 34 per cent participating interest in consortium with existing partners GAIL (India) Limited, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Oil India Limited.
Among the documents that Arvind Kejriwal handed out in his press conference on Wednesday, was a page from the letter from the former minister of petroleum and natural gas, S Jaipal Reddy, and marked as annexure 5, to Reliance Industries about its KG Basin oil extraction
The company seeks appointment of independent international experts to verify its claims.
It's mostly fun and games at annual general meetings of companies, but sometimes it is also a bit ugly. . .
The government is pushing the public sector behemoth ONGC to involve private sector companies and service providers wherever possible to help raise oil and gas production, Petroleum Secretary Tarun Kapoor said Thursday. Kapoor's comments came days after the second-highest ranked official in his ministry asked Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to give away a 60 per cent stake plus operating control in India's largest oil and gas producing fields of Mumbai High and Bassein to foreign companies. "ONGC has to explore more so that it can discover more oil and gas reserves and bring them quickly to production to raise domestic output. The government is very clear that ONGC has to do more," he told reporters.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA or Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil firm, has offered ONGC its 15 per cent interest in the Krishna Godavari basin block that sits next to Reliance Industries prolific KG-D6 fields without any cost.
With over half the Plan funds that Parliament approves being spent through non-government channels, to cite the figure in CAG Vinod Rai's presentation to the Planning Commission, members of the Parliament have no way of knowing whether the money is properly spent.
The company's junior partner in block KG-DWN-2003/1 (or D3) Hardy Oil and Gas said there were 'unresolved mechanical issues' with Transocean's rig 'Deepwater Expedition' which was drilling an exploration well on the block.
Norway-based Aker Solutions, appointed by ONGC to explore the possibility of sharing RIL's infrastructural facilities on the East Coast, is expected to submit its final report next month, sources close to the development said.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has told oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) that its KG basin block may hold about 3 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves from which it plans to produce 25-30 million unit a day by 2016.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) is expected to complete the special audit of the accounts of KG Basin oil and gas fields of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) by February next year, a top official said.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has said issue of bonus shares after a 12-year hiatus was just fulfilment of the company's commitment to reward shareholders after completion of important projects.
RIL declined to comment on this or related allegations, saying the entire issue was in court.
RIL president and CEO (Oil and Gas) PMS Prasad, who met petroleum ministry officials to discuss under capacity production from the company's KG basin fields, said: "We have time till July 15 to decide. . . we are still evaluating our options."
The 28 discoveries include Charada structure and Matar field in Cambay basin (Gujarat) and YSAF in KG basin (off Andhra Pradesh coast), the company said. The discoveries made in FY'09 have been notified to the directorate general of hydrocarbons.
The apex court also heard a plea for bringing back black money stashed in tax havens abroad.
RIL said RNRL has maintained that the May 12, 2005 draft agreement between the RIL and NTPC should be the basis for fixing the price of gas from the KG Basin but it has ignored the provision for government approval.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the demerger scheme worked out with his brother Anil Ambani was categorical that the gas supplies from the KG Basin to his group was not for trading and meant for promoting power generation plant.
The government told the Bombay high court on Friday that the empowered group of ministers decided that Mukesh Ambani-led RIL will start supplying gas from the KG basin to Anil Ambani's Dadri power project and other upcoming power plants once it is ready to begin operations.
The downstream segment will enjoy greater visibility on excise duty as branded petrol and diesel will now attract specific duty.
The arguments in the high-voltage bitter legal battle for the first time saw Anil Ambani sitting during the court proceedings throughout the day.
RIL's KG basin started pumping gas in April and is currently producing 37-38 mscmd.
The Cairn-ONGC-Videocon consortium had last month written to the petroleum ministry seeking a 57 per cent hike in the Ravva Satellite field gas price citing provision in the Production Sharing Contract for the field.
State-run gas utility GAIL India Ltd buys 0.9 million standard cubic meters per day of output from Ravva Satellite fields at $4.30 per mmBtu. The new price sought by the Ravva consortium is 60 per cent more than the maximum price of $4.20 per mmBtu approved for RIL's KG-D6 fields for five years to March 2014.
The state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has agreed to pay over Rs 3,914.39 crore (Rs 39.14 billion) for hiring an ultra deep-sea drill rig from Reliance Industries for four years, a top company official said.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani met top government officials on Tuesday, including Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary to the prime minister, to explain his company's approach to pricing of natural gas to be produced from KG basin.
Policy air bubbles and implementation snags could block plans to connect India's cities to a clean fuel grid.
The Bombay high court on Monday suggested that the warring Ambani brothers could approach an independent body to resolve their dispute relating to supply of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin. "The MoU is not able to resolve the issue and we would suggest both the parties to approach an independent body for the same," observed justice J N Patel.
Companies like Reliance Industries, which plans to produce natural gas from KG basin from 2008, will have to invite bids from consumers to discover the price of output under a new exercise adopted by the government.
The company has already received an approval to spend Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) for commercialising two of its biggest gas discoveries in the D6 block located in the KG basin. "In a letter to oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the company has submitted one more development plan for Rs 10,000 crore as additional capex (capital expenditure) for the block.
NTPC, India's largest thermal power operator, said it will stay away from the ongoing Reliance Industries and Reliance Natural Resources case in the Bombay high court over the supply of KG Basin gas.
The empowered group of ministers, however, decided to allocate the initial 40 million standard cubic metre per day of gas from KG-D6 basin to the existing power and fertiliser plants and proposed units like the captive power plant at Nagothane did not figure in the scheme of things. A company spokesperson confirmed the scrapping of the project.
Commenting on the EGoM decision regarding supply of KG gas to upcoming power projects, RIL counsel Harish Salve said, "Government has no right to allocate gas." He clarified that his client was opposed to this stand of the government.
RFRL Group President A N Sethuraman on September 3 filed three separate applications with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board for licences to sell CNG to automobiles and piped gas to households in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad etc.
RIL is likely to take about six months to one year to estimate the oil and gas reserves available from the new discovery.
RIL expects oil and gas sales from the Krishna-Godavari basin to boost its revenues and profits significantly. The company started test production of oil from the basin around 10 days ago. The cost of production per barrel of oil is not known. RIL's share price on the Bombay Stock Exchange has fallen 9.3 per cent in the last month as world markets have tumbled on fears of an economic crisis.
Reliance Industries has created history by flowing oil from the nation's first deep-sea oilfield, but gas production from the eastern offshore KG basin will begin in January, four months behind the deadline. Reliance began oil production from its predominantly gas-rich KG-DWN-98/3 or D6 block on September 17 with initial oil flowing at the rate of 5,500 barrels per day, the company Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced on Sunday in Mumbai.
Sunil Jain explains why the government does not necessarily win if it applies a higher gas price.
According to senior RIL executives, more than half the work has been completed on the pipeline, which will transport gas from the KG basin to the RIL refinery at Jamnagar.
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