RIL had drawn 58.67 bcm of gas from four wells.
The projected output will come from satellite fields in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block as well as North East Coast block NEC-25, off the West Bengal coast.
Dudley, whose company last year made the largest foreign direct investment in the oil sector, followed it up with a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
The near-doubling of gas prices to $8 per million British thermal units that will kick in from next month will accrue to all producers in the country.
RIL and its partners BP plc of UK and Canada's Niko Resources plan to produce about 13 million standard cubic metres per day of gas for 13 years from D-34 discovery, known as R-Cluster, in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block by 2017-18.
Reliance Industries on Friday hit out at Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) for suing it over KG gas dispute, saying some elements in the state-owned firm may be "misleading" the chairman D K Sarraf to hide their failure in developing the discoveries made over 13 years.
Saudi Aramco chairman and head of the Kingdom's cash-rich wealth fund PIF Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan will join the board of Reliance Industries Ltd as an independent director in a precursor to a $15 billion deal. Reliance chairman and Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani, who had two years back disclosed the talks to sell a 20 per cent stake in the company's oil-to-chemical unit to Saudi Aramco, announced the appointment of Al-Rumayyan at the company's annual meeting of shareholders. Harvard educated Al-Rumayyan, 51, will replace Yogendra P Trivedi, 92, who has expressed a desire to retire, Ambani said. On the sale of a 20 per cent stake in the O2C business, he said the deal is likely to conclude this year.
The 'failure' to drill the committed 50 wells on the KG-D6 fields led to natural gas output dramatically falling over the past three years.
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily approved continuation of the existing rate of $4.2 per million British thermal units until the new government, which will be in place in May, decides on implementation of the new price formula.
The government had disallowed as much as $1.005 billion of its investment as KG-D6 output lagged targets.
In its first decision, the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Wednesday cleared Reliance Industries' producing KG-D6 block and gas discovery area NEC-25 along with 3 other areas where the Defence Ministry had either barred oil and gas activity or put stringent conditions on that.
Production from its KG-D6 gas field is set to increase and the government is likely to revise gas prices.
Gas price hike seems to be a distant dream for Reliance Industries and its partners--Niko Resources and BP.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, which had at the end of its first sitting with RIL in January suspended the audit of spending on the flagging KG-D6 block following differences with RIL over scope and extent of the scrutiny, is likely to resume it next two weeks.
Reliance Industries on Friday reported more than doubling of its March quarter net profit to Rs 13,227 crore as improvement in petrochemical and consumer business countered continued weakness in refining business.
Oil Ministry officials insisted that Defence Ministry cannot withdraw the clearance after 12 years of exploration.
BP Plc, Europe's second biggest oil company, and Reliance Industries will invest $5 billion in developing untapped gas reserves in the KG-D6 block, aimed at reversing the fall in gas production, RIL statement said on Tuesday.
Disagreements over scope of audit cropped up on the very first day the Comptroller and Auditor General of India began to the second round of audit of spendings on eastern offshore KG-D6 fields with RIL alleging that the auditor was not confirming if the accounts scrutiny would be as per the provisions enshrined in the Production Sharing Contact.
Contract does not provide for retrospective penalty for 'such' acts
The Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas in its report tabled in Parliament today asked the ministry to strictly monitor implementation of directions issued to RIL for reversing the trend of falling gas output from the Bay of Bengal field.
The government on Thursday decided to join the arbitration initiated by Reliance Industries and its partners over delay in revision of natural gas prices, and named former Supreme Court judge G S Singhvi as its arbitrator.
RIL has slapped an arbitration notice challenging oil ministry's decision to take away 814 square kilometer of its eastern offshore KG-D6 area that contained five gas discoveries.
IAC activist Arvind Kejrival yesterday claimed that Jaipal Reddy was shunted out of petroleum ministry due to his opposition to gas price revision.
The company had initially objected to audit by CAG for time barred years as per Production Sharing Contract and had not accepted the 'exceptional circumstances' advanced by the ministry
Amidst controversy over fall in output from RIL's KG-D6 gas fields, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) on Wednesday appeared to favour scrapping the present system of contracts and instead asking firms to bid for the share of oil and gas they can offer to the government.
While the Management Committee of KG-D6 block in August agreed to approval of capital spending plans pending for past three years, the resolution has so far not been signed.
Ratnagiri Gas and Power, firm that now runs the Dabhol plant, was allocated 7.6 mmscmd of KG-D6 gas.
The company seeks appointment of independent international experts to verify its claims.
The newer gas finds will help turn the tide for ONGC, which has seen oil and gas output stagnating in recent times.
Govt notification on $8.4 a unit price likely by month-end
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India had called an Entry Conference with RIL and the Oil Ministry on Wednesday to begin its second round of audit that is to cover RIL's spending on KG-D6 gas fields during 2008-09 to 2011-12.
The company will invest $747 mn to increase production from D1, D3 and MA fields.
RIL had in 2006 proposed to invest $2.234 billion in developing the Dhirubhai-26 or MA discovery, the only oil find in the KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) block in Krishna Godavari basin off the east coast.
Reliance Industries Ltd has decided not to use its allocation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin's D6 field for petrochemical production; it will, instead, swap it with gas available from other sources. It will use D6 gas only for power generation.
Reliance Industries is facing penalty for falling gas output from its KG-D6 fields.
RIL on June 15 wrote to Oil Ministry proposing to price natural gas it produces from the Krishna Godavari basin block in Bay of Bengal at a rate equivalent to price India pays for importing liquefied natural gas, official sources said.
RIL has more than half a dozen undeveloped discoveries.
RIL has so far drilled six wells on the MA oilfield, the only oil discovery among the 19 oil and gas finds the company had made in the eastern offshore KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block.
RIL-BP, who are currently producing about 11.8 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from the flagging eastern offshore KG-D6 block, is targeting newer fields in KG-D6 block and gas discoveries in neighbouring north-east coast and Cauvery basin to raise output.
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The five discoveries -- D4, D7, D8, D16 and D23 - hold 0.805 trillion cubic feet of reserves, or about one-fourth of the restated reserves in the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) fields in KG-D6 block, and are worth $10 billion.
