Cairn India and UK's BG Group too replied to audit observations.
Reliance Industries has strongly defended its decision to impose a marketing margin over-and-above the government-approved sale price for KG-D6 gas, saying the levy was to cover for the risk and cost associated with marketing of gas.
It is expected to take a similar stand at the Mumbai and Delhi high courts, where Welspun Maxsteel, Ispat Industries and Essar Steel have challenged the petroleum ministry's decision to divert KG-D6s supply from steel and petrochemicals to power and fertiliser.
Consequently, Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Power will not get any extra gas for its four power plants, including the existing Samalkot power plant in Andhra Pradesh. Senior government officials said the minutes of the meeting of the empowered group of ministers on the New Exploration Licensing Policy had been finalised.
The output comprised 32.94 mmscmd from the D1 and D3 gas fields and 6.86 mmscmd from the MA oilfield.
According to an official close to the development, in the coming financial audit report, to be tabled in Parliament's Budget session next year, CAG will detail the slide in the government's share in petroleum sector profits due to a drop in gas production.
Reliance and its partner BP on Tuesday dropped a bombshell, saying KG-D6, the country's biggest gas discovery, might stop production in 2015 if the government did not approve its long-pending investment proposals and revised capital expenditure plans.
RIL and BP completed the initial exploratory work on the 21 blocks, but decided to retain only four of them.
This is significantly higher than the government revenues of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) that ADAG has been claiming in an advertising campaign that it launched on August 17. The exercise marks the first time the directorate general of hydrocarbon, the upstream oil regulator, has worked out such an estimate. The exercise is not carried out in the normal course for oil or gas fields.
The entry of a new developer through competitive bidding would delay the development of discoveries by at least 10 years.
Close on the heels of getting nod to invest $ 7.2 billion in Reliance Industries' oil and gas properties, BP Plc on Wednesday said output from Mukesh Ambani-run firm's KG-D6 gas fields can rise only in 2014 after new fields in the area are quickly brought into production.
\nRIL had earlier proposed investment of $2.47 billion to produce 40 mmscmd for 7.5 years from discoveries -- Dhirubhai 1 and 3 (in the D6 block) -- out of a total 34 wells.
"They (Reliance) are producing natural gas from 18 wells currently. Two more wells have been drilled (but not put on production) and another two are expected to be done by March. Once all 22 wells come on stream, sometime in April 2011, gas output will again touch 60 mscmd," Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) Director General S K Srivastava said.
Could get $8.4 per mmBtu from April 2014 by furnishing bank guarantee that would be encashed if D1, D3 gas hoarding proved
Moily said several gas fields of both RIL and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp were economically unviable to produce at current rate of $4.2 per million British thermal unit.
While the Cabinet has approved doubling of gas price from April 1 next year, Oil Ministry is proposing that old rates of $4.2 per million British thermal unit apply to gas from D1/D3 and MA fields in eastern offshore KG-D6 block till it proved that RIL had proved less than targets only because of geological factors.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has once again shut down crude oil production at its predominantly gas-rich KG-D6 block to hook up more wells that will raise the output to a peak of 40,000 barrels per day.
RIL and its British partner BP Plc had proposed undertaking concept validation and Front End Engineering Design for all the 16 gas discoveries surrounding the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in the 7,645 sq km KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, has walked away with half of the natural gas that Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner bp of the UK offered in the latest auction of the fuel used to generate power, produce fertilizer, turned into CNG and used for cooking purposes. IOC got 2.5 million standard cubic meters per day out of the 5 mmscmd of gas auctioned last month, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The oil refining and marketing company, which was the top bidder even in the previous auction of gas from the eastern offshore KG-D6 block of Reliance-bp, bid the volumes on behalf of seven fertilizer plants.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 27 per cent jump in its September quarter net profit as earnings from the oil and gas business rebounded, and a pick-up in fashion and grocery helped boost retail revenues. The oil-to-retail-to-telecom conglomerate's consolidated net profit of Rs 17,394 crore, or Rs 25.71 per share, in July-September - the second quarter of the current 2023-24 fiscal - was 27.3 per cent higher than Rs 13,656 crore, or Rs 19.92 a share, earning a year back, the company said in a statement. The net profit was also higher quarter-on-quarter compared to Rs 16,011 crore earnings in the preceding three months ended June 30.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 9 per cent rise in its December quarter net profit as a planned maintenance-induced weakness in oil business earnings was offset by stability in retail and telecom verticals. The oil-to-retail-to-telecom conglomerate's consolidated net profit of Rs 17,265 crore, or Rs 25.52 per share, in October-December - the third quarter of the current 2023-24 fiscal - was 9.3 per cent higher than Rs 15,792 crore, or Rs 23.19 a share, earning a year back, according to a company statement. Quarter-on-quarter, the profit was lower when compared to Rs 17,394 crore earnings in the preceding three months ended September 30.
As per the 15-day billing cycle, gas producers are to raise the first invoice at the revised price of $5.61 per million British thermal unit this weekend.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported an 11 per cent drop in its June quarter net profit largely due to weak oil-to-chemical (O2C) vertical and higher interest and depreciation cost. Net profit was Rs 16,011 crore, or Rs 23.66 per share, in April-June - the first quarter of current 2023-24 fiscal year - compared with Rs 17,955 crore, or Rs 26.54 a share, earning a year back, according to a company's stock exchange filing.
The Delhi high court has rejected a government challenge to an arbitration panel award that had ruled in favour of Reliance Industries Ltd in a dispute over gas migration from fields operated by state-owned ONGC in the KG basin. The government had slapped a provisional penalty of $1.55 billion on Reliance for "unjust enrichment" from gas migrating from the ONGC-operated KG-D5 block to the private firm's adjoining KG-D6 area. It had sought $175 million in additional profit petroleum from Reliance and its UK partner BP Plc.
Reliance Industries (RIL) has cut estimates for proven gas reserves in its Krishna-Godavari block off the east coast by 6.7 per cent, to 3.67 trillion cubic ft (tcf), the company said in its annual report.
The unit, with a capacity to produce 150 Mw of power, has been shut since March 2009. Prior to its closure due to environmental reasons, the unit was running on liquid fuel. Reliance has already signed gas sales and purchase agreements with nine power sector players for supply of 11 mmscmd of natural gas from the KG-D6 block.
Reliance Industries Ltd, which recently demerged its overseas oil and gas projects, is debating hiving off its giant Krishna-Godavari gas field, but ruled out talks for inducting US energy major Chevron as equity partner.
Many CEOs said they plan to give special leave to women employees so as to encourage their participation in the workforce.
India's production of crude oil, which is refined to produce petrol and diesel, continued to decline in November, with lower output from state-owned firms leading to an over 2 per cent drop, official data released on Tuesday showed. Crude oil production in November was 2.43 million tonnes, down from 2.48 million tonnes a year back and 2.5 million tonnes in October 2021. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) produced 3 per cent less crude oil at 1.6 million tonnes in November due to delays in mobilising equipment at western offshore fields.
Prices of natural gas, which is used to generate electricity, make fertiliser and is converted into CNG to run automobiles, were on Friday hiked by a steep 40 per cent to record levels, in step with global firming up of energy rates. The rate paid for gas produced from old fields, which make up for about two-thirds of all gas produced in the country, was hiked to $8.57 per million British thermal units from the current $6.1, according to an order from the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). Simultaneously, the price of gas from difficult and newer fields like the ones in Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner bp plc operated deepsea D6 block in KG basin, was hiked to $12.6 per mmBtu from $9.92, the order said.
India's crude oil production fell 2.3 per cent in August but natural gas output rose by more than a fifth on the back of output from KG-D6 fields of Reliance-BP, government data released on Wednesday showed. Crude oil production dropped to 2.51 million tonnes in August as output from fields operated by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) dipped. India is 85 per cent dependent on imports to meet its oil needs and the government has been for long looking at ways to raise the domestic output so as to reduce import dependence.
Prices of natural gas, which is used to generate electricity, make fertiliser and is converted into CNG to run automobiles, is likely to rise to record levels at the rate review scheduled this week, sources said. The government-dictated price for natural gas produced in the country is to be revised on October 1. After factoring in the spike in energy prices witnessed in recent months, the rate paid for gas produced from old fields such as of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is likely to rise to $9 per million British thermal units from current $6.1.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 15 per cent drop in its net profit to Rs 15,792 crore for the third quarter, according to a company's stock exchange filing. The net profit of Rs 15,792 crore in October-December 2022 compares to Rs 18,549 crore a year back.
Reliance Industries has proposed to invest an additional $1.5 billion in bringing to production four gas discoveries adjoining its prolific gas fields in Krishna-Godavari basin in the country's east coast.
Previously, chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana had written to the Centre seeking 7.5-8 million standard cubic metres per day each of RIL's KG-D6 field gas for power plants in their respective states immediately.
The DGH said that RIL's initial production from the D6 block is likely to be of around 15 million standard cubic metres per day.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 7 per cent drop in its June quarter net profit as retail business got hit by the second wave of COVID infections.
India's natural gas production is projected to jump by 52 per cent to 122 million standard cubic metres per day by 2024 as state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Reliance Industries Ltd-BP combine raise output from the KG basin fields. Natural gas production in 2019-20 was 85 mmscmd, which is estimated to have fallen to 80 mmscmd in the following year, HDFC Securities said in a report. The output is projected to rise in the current fiscal that started on April 1 to 93 mmscmd, 107 mmscmd in the following year and 122 mmscmd in 2023-24, the brokerage estimated.
Global energy supermajor BP plc on Thursday said it is about to open its first 'Jio-bp' branded petrol pump in partnership with Reliance Industries near Mumbai.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 12 per cent rise in December quarter net profit on improving oil-to-chemical business, strong continued momentum in retail and steady telecom unit Jio.