After Moily took over as oil minister, the central government agreed to link prices with global indices.
Reliance Industries is believed to have signed agreements to sell gas from its eastern offshore KG D-6 fields to six power producers, including GVK, in Andhra Pradesh.
They also voiced concerns over a double penalty being sought to be imposed on them for KG-D6 fields output not matching targets.
Reliance Industries has inked deals to supply gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 fields to most power sector consumers, including Essar Power and an Anil Ambani Group firm.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries will sell natural gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 fields to Anil Ambani Group firm's power plant in Andhra Pradesh at government approved rates.
bp had last year bought 49 per cent stake in the 1,400-odd petrol pumps and 31 aviation turbine fuel stations owned by RIL for $1 billion.
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 gas fields are likely to see output drop to all-time low of 20 million standard cubic meters per day in 2014-15, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy said on Tuesday.
The Election Commission asked the government to defer announcement of the new price till completion of the polls and so RIL was asked to continue selling the gas at old rates.
Reliance Industries was to relinquish 25 per cent of the gas-bearing KG-D6 block in 2004 and a similar area in 2006 but the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, which was at that time headed by V K Sibal, concluded that hydrocarbon prospectivity "extends over entire block and hence no block area needed to be relinquished."
Last week, RIL and urea companies failed to settle the key terms of gas supply from April 1 upon expiry of the five-year contracts that priced gas from the eastern offshore KG-D6 fields at $4.205 per million British thermal units.
With this, the total penalty on RIL for missing the target in four fiscal years beginning April 1, 2010 now stands at a cumulative $2.376 billion, the Minister informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Reliance had in December, 2009, submitted to the regulator an optimised development plan for four satellite gas fields around the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields in the KG-DWN-98/3, or KG-D6, block.
Reliance had in 2006 won government nod to invest $8.836 billion in Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in KG-D6 block after promising an output of 61.88 million cubic meters a day from 22 wells by April 2011 and 80 mmscmd from 31 wells by 2012.
Reliance concealed and did not reveal the data to ONGC.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had first on June 27, 2013, and then on December 19, 2013, decided to price all domestically produced natural gas, including unconventional fuels such as coal-bed methane and shale gas, at an average of international hub rates and the cost of importing liquefied natural gas.
In a draft audit report on the KG-DWN-98/3, or KG-D6, block, the Comptroller and Auditor General said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons allowed Reliance to hike capital expenditure for developing Dhirubhai-1 and 3, the largest of 18 gas finds in the block, by 117 per cent.
With RIL's KG-D6 output playing truant, steps need to be taken to stabilise the country's natural gas production.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Wednesday asserted in the Supreme Court that it did not receive any favour from the government in the contract for exploration of oil and gas from Krishna-Godavari basin.
Reliance had committed to drill 22 wells in the Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields or D1, the largest of 18 gas discoveries in the block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in the Bay of Bengal, by April 2011 to produce 53.4 million standard cubic meters of gas per day (mscmd).
In its annual work program submitted to upstream oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Reliance stated that natural gas output from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 or D1 and D3 gas fields in the block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6, will be about 38 mmscmd in 2012-13 from current production level of 43-44 mmscmd.
Australia's Oilex on Monday said it has made huge natural gas discovery in Gujarat that may hold over 1.5 Trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves. Industry estimates put the total resource base or inplace reserves in the Cambay basin discoveries near the town of Khambat, 160-km south of Ahmedabad, at between 20-30 Trillion cubic feet, almost equivalent to inplace reserves of Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 fields.
Government had proposed a revised investment plan for the main gas fields in the KG-D6 block.
Gas pricing guidelines stipulate that a new gas price will apply to all producers except RIL.
Oil ministry this week issued written instructions to the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run firm to make a 'pro-rata' cut in gas supplies to all existing customers if the production from its KG-D6 field cannot support new customers, two sources with direct knowledge of the information have said.
The proposed expansion of the Dabhol power project under Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL) by 2,100 Mw from the present capacity of 1,940 Mw has been stalled for want of assured gas supply from the KG-D6 gas field, operated by Reliance Industries Ltd, and adequate number of power procuring states.
According to a source close to the development, the government is set to come out with a notification in this regard by the end of this week.
The department has proposed to pool prices of imported and domestically produced natural gas.
The petroleum ministry has said Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is not right in seeking an out-of-turn rise in the price of natural gas produced from the KG-D6 fields and asserted the $4.205 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) rate will prevail unless pricing formula is changed.
An empowered group of ministers headed by Defence Minister A K Antony is to consider an Oil Ministry proposal of abolishing the priority ranking according to which natural gas is first given to urea manufacturing fertiliser plants, then to LPG units, followed by power plants, city gas, steel and refineries.
RIL said production capacity from KG-D6 has far exceeded the 40 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd), for which buyers have been tied-up, and has asked the government to immediately name customers for an additional 25 mmscmd so as to avoid irreversible damage to the field reservoirs.
The government plans to impose an additional penalty of $578 million on Reliance Industries for producing less-than-targeted natural gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 block.
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG D-6 field's gas production will double to around 90 million standard cubic meters per day by next fiscal, government's background material for the Economic Editor's Conference said.
A price of $4.20 per million British thermal units is not viable for smaller gas discoveries, say industry experts.
The beleaguered Dabhol power plant will from October 1 start buying natural gas from Reliance Industries to cut electricity generation cost at the nation's largest gas-fired unit.
This follows a letter by RIL to the ministry, justifying the increase in capex.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons last month recommended to the Oil Ministry that $792 million of the cost RIL has incurred in KG-D6 fields be disallowed for producing only an average of 26.07 million cubic meters per day of gas as against the target of 86.73 mmcmd in 2012-13.
The government has formed a four-member panel of secretaries to suggest a new gas pricing mechanism.
Reliance Industries has already stepped up gas production from 28 mmscmd in June to about 36-37 mmscmd now. The production will soon reach 42 mmscmd once the supply to the Dabhol power plant is increased in the first week of October, said a company official.
The petroleum ministry is mulling filing a defamation suit against an Anil Ambani Group firm for persisting with 'false claims' pertaining to government revenues from Reliance Industries KG-D6 fields.
Some documents not yet provided, spokesperson tells DNA Money. Murli Deora's Petromin says report submitted! ADAG once again asks for tabling of report, shows 'proof' govt appointed auditors of RIL expense sheet have conflict of interest.
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