RIL stated on Saturday that it had never contested the government's right to get spendings on the flagging KG-D6 gas fields audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India but added that the consent must not lead to a performance audit of a private firm.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons wants the government to get a share of the $0.135 per million British thermal units marketing margin RIL charges over and above the government approved gas price of $4.205, sources privy to the development said.
Reliance Industries has opposed a move to make marketing margin charged by it and other sellers of domestically produced natural gas uniform, while giving gasimporters a free hand, saying that it would be a gross discrimination.
RIL gets $4.2 per million British thermal unit for the gas produced from its KG-D6 fields in the Bay of Bengal.
It executive director, PMS Prasad said that the company is only seeking clarity from government on rates for further investments decisions.
The Ministry refused to buy RGTIL's argument that the government has already allocated all of the projected 91 mmscmd gas output from the KG-D6 fields to customers in Andhra Pradesh, Maharasthra and other northern states, leaving no gas for transportation through its proposed pipelines from Kakinada to Howrah, Chennai, Tuticorin and Mangalore.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp is in talks to hire Reliance Industries' unutilised production facilities on the east to quickly bring to production its gas finds in the Krishna Godavari basin.
It was agreed at the meeting to recommend to the competent authority on two issues namely the Declaration of Commerciality of certain wells in the NEC 25 and KG D6.
RIL wants to drill an exploration well on the D1&D3 gas fields in the KG-D6 block, Cairn on the Rajasthan block.
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 gas field has seen output drop to 29 million units a day, against a planned 80 million units, causing acute shortage in power generation, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy said on Tuesday.
To proceed with a Cabinet proposal to grant the relaxations to RIL, the Election Commission's approval will be sought.
Reliance Industries has made two more gas discoveries at its prodigious D6 and NEC-25 blocks off the east coast, the company's junior partner Niko Resources of Canada announced.
Move came in the wake of government's refusal to settle the dispute through arbitration over recovery of cost incurred by the company.
Due to poor hydrocarbon prospects, BP surrendered nine out of the 21 oil and gas blocks where it had bought 30 per cent stake from Reliance Industries for $7.2 billion
Needed, it says, for covering its return and risks; also wants govt to stick to contract on output sharing
RIL, its partner BP plc of UK will invest about Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) by 2016 to help sustain and improve recovery from the two main gas fields.
The ministry had previously wanted to disallow $1.235 billion expenditure that RIL had incurred on putting production facilities at the Bay of Bengal gas fields but in the 7-page notice it sent to the company on May 2, the cost to be disallowed was put at $1.462 billion, sources privy to the development said.
The SC bench headed by judge S S Nijjar suggested to appoint foreign arbitrator in RIL'a ongoing case on gas pricing.
In Q3, E&P business accounted for just 1.5% of gross revenue
The companies are in talks with Shell, Petronet LNG to book capacity
Govt plans to stop RIL from selling crude to Jamnagar refinery.
The way the government treated miner Vedanta Resources' proposal to buy majority of UK's Cairn Energy in Cairn India and RIL selling 30 per cent of its stake in 23 properties, including the prolific KG-D6 gas block to BP, goes to the heart of the mistrust between India Inc and United Progressive Alliance-2 in 2011.
Reliance Industries Ltd has made two new gas discoveries at its D-6 block, the site of the world's largest gas find of 2002, in Bay of Bengal.
Petroleum secretary G C Chaturvedi said the arbitration notice grants a time of up to a month to respond and there was no hurry.
GSAT-6, the country's latest communication satellite has been successfully positioned in its orbital slot, Indian Space Research Organisation said on Sunday.
The government will initiate action to limit the amount of expenditure Reliance Industries is allowed to recoup from its flagging KG-D6 gas fields in three to four weeks, Oil Secretary G C Chaturvedi said on Tuesday.
The company had a total debt of Rs 16,010 crore (Rs 160.1 billion).
RIL will get $ 7.2 billion for the stake sale in 21 blocks and could get further $1.2 billion as performance payments based on exploration success resulting into development of commercial deliveries.
RIL, which has 26 oil and gas blocks, including the giant KG-D6 fields, has been applying to the Home Ministry for security clearance of the specialised expatriate technical personnel deployed on its offshore vessels, including seismic survey ships, drill ships, tug boats and supply vessels.
The Dhirubhai-34 discovery, known as the R-Series field, has gross in-place gas reserves of 1.64 trillion cubic feet, which, according to Reliance, can be brought into production in 4-5 years, sources privy to the development said.
Steel manufacturers on Wednesday hit out at 'unilateral' decision of the Oil Ministry to curb natural gas supplies from Reliance Industries' KG-D6 fields to non-core users, saying only a ministerial panel was empowered to take such decision.
Reliance from 0600 hours today began complying with an oil ministry order asking it to first supply gas produced from eastern offshore KG-D6 fields to priority users -- urea making fertiliser plants, electricity generation houses, LPG extraction units and city gas distribution firms.
CAG had said the increase in field cost would mean a lower profit take for the government.
Reliance Industries on Friday dubbed as a "canard" allegations that the near-doubling of natural gas prices will lead to a similar hike in domestic cooking gas (LPG) and inflation in food item rates.
Reliance Industries may ask the government for a refund of its investment if it is forced to give up any part of the prolific KG-D6 block as it has spent a huge sum of money on exploration after obtaining necessary permission to retain the entire 7,645-sq km area.
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had on July 22 cleared the sale of stake by RIL to BP in 21 blocks.
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