After the success of Barmer oil fields in Rajasthan, Cairn India - the second largest oil and natural gas explorer in the country - bets heavily on wildcat drilling.
ONGC, which is 30 per cent partner in Cairn India- operated Rajasthan oilfields, is obliged to pay royalty on entire crude oil produce from the blocks, even though its share is just 30 per cent.
ONGC sought opinion from the second highest law officer of the country after its partner Cairn Energy Plc stated that the UK firm's sale of majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources will not trigger pre-emption rights of the state- owned firm, a top oil ministry official said.
Apparently making amends to past slip-ups, UK's Cairn Energy on Thursday courted the government and ONGC to clear-up "misgivings" on sale of majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources.
Cairn Energy Plc's deal to sell a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources for up to $8.48 billion is contingent upon the billionaire Anil Agarwal-led group completing an open offer to minority shareholders of Cairn India, a senior official said.
British energy firm Cairn Energy Plc on Thursday said it will pay all taxes due, both in India and the United Kingdom, on the $8.48 billion it will gain from selling a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources.
While UK's Vodafone Group fights its tax liability in courts, British firm Cairn Energy Plc on Wednesday said it will pay all taxes due, both in India and the United Kingdom, on the $8.48 billion sale of a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources.
India Inc's merger and acquisition activity seems to be fading as the month of August was the leanest since September 2009 with total deal volume of $4.2 billion.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) will double offtake of crude oil from Cairn India's Rajasthan fields to 0.4 million tons this fiscal.
The proposed takeover of Cairn Energy's India business could see Non-Resident Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal emerging as the richest promoter of a corporate house in India ahead of Mukesh Ambani, who has ruled the list for long.
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) may seek management control of the giant Rajasthan oilfields in lieu of allowing UK's Cairn Energy to sell majority stake in its Indian arm that now operates the field, to a non-oil firm, Vedanta Resources for $8.48 billion.
NRI billionaire Anil Agrawal-led Vedanta Group on Tuesday said its open offer for 20 per cent stake in Cairn India will begin on October 11, as part of its $9.6 billion takeover deal of the country's fourth largest oil explorer.
The Finance Ministry on Monday said Cairn Energy Plc is likely to pay close to $1 billion as capital gains tax on the $8.48 billion it expects to get from selling majority stake in its India arm to Vedanta Resources.
Public shareholders of Cairn India will lose out on a whopping Rs 3,570 crore (Rs 35.7 billion) to the promoters who would be only beneficiary of a non-compete fees to be paid by its suitor, London-listed Vedanta group.
About 0.9 million standard cubic meters per day of gas produced from the fields lying in Bay of Bengal, off the Andhra Pradesh coast, is currently sold at $3.5 per million British thermal unit.
It is also understood that scope of this audit will far exceed the normal course of audit by CAG and the prime objective may be to detect fraud, if any, by RIL allegedly in collusion with oil regulator DGH and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Indian Oil Corporation has started buying crude oil from Cairn India's Rajasthan oil fields, which have now crossed the 1,00,000 barrels per day mark in production.
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The government is likely to file an appeal against the Cairn arbitration award contesting its sovereign rights to tax, sources said.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that a needless controversy had been created over the Pokhran II nuclear tests that took place in May 1998.
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Three PSUs, three private firms join bid to acquire 40% stake in Haldia Petrochem.
RIL's predominantly gas rich KG-D6 block, off the east coast, has also helped boost availability of the environment friendly fuel in the country.
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The investment will be fully funded from the firm's cash resources and will target adding 530 million barrels of oil to its reserves.
As Cairn India began to pump crude oil on Monday from its Mangala oilfield here.
Minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said that IOC and MRPL have been allocated 0.20 million tonnes each in 2009-10, while HPCL would offtake 0.30 million tonnes of Rajasthan crude. In 2010-11, IOC would buy 1.5 million tonnes of the crude oil from the nation's most prolific oil discovery in more than two decades, while MRPL would double its offtake to 0.40 million tonnes.
Top management of firms should be summoned for a few specified reasons and after written justification at a senior level.
Cairn India is 25th on the list with 22.2 per cent CGR.
RIL is keen on buying Cairn India's Rajasthan crude oil but said it cannot take the oil unless the pipeline from fields to Gujarat coast is built.
In an attempt to stop states from levying local sales tax on inter-state transactions, the Centre has told Rajasthan that only Central Sales Tax can be levied on crude oil sold from Cairn India's fields in the state to refiners elsewhere.
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 recruitment drive is looking to fill more than 300 key positions for the Rajasthan project, a company statement said.
The Vedanta group on Wednesday confirmed putting in a preliminary expression of interest (EoI) for buying the government's stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).
ONGC on Thursday said it may invest $1.01 billion in Cairn India's Rajasthan oilfields even though the project offers negative returns as the public sector firm is liable to pay all the statutory levies.
Cairn India, which found India's largest oil field in Rajasthan in over 30 years, has discovered a saline water reservoir near its oil field that will help pump crude oil to the ground level and enhance production.
Reliance Industries and Essar Oil are keen on buying crude oil from Cairn India's Rajasthan fields even as the petroleum ministry struggles to find takers of the nation's most prolific oil discovery among public sector firms.
Cairn India, a unit of UK-based Carin Energy, will have the potential to account for 20 per cent of India's oil production in the next decade once oil starts flowing from its three fields in Rajasthan.
India-born steel magnate LN Mittal met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 8 to discuss his plans in the oil and gas sector in India. The meeting has led to reports that Mittal is interested in taking over Cairn India's assets, which includes prospective oil discovery in Rajasthan.
Participants are eagerly waiting for the key macrodata -- IIP and CPI numbers due to be released later today.
Cairn India has drawn strength from its Scottish parent, but also built new systems and processes to support its role in the country's oil sector.
Together, the top 10 business groups reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 19,342 crore during the January-March 2020 quarter, as against a profit before tax of around Rs 48,500 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 39,600 crore during the December quarter. While Vedanta was the worst hit. others included Aditya Birla, Bharti, Adani, Mahindra, and Tata.
