Ministry returns guarantee saying new price has not been notified and RIL would have to submit surety as and when it is announced.
These 7 blocks are adding exploration acreage of 18,510 square kilometres spread over three sedimentary basins of India and have a resource potential of approximately 33 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas.
Stoutly defending the hike in gas prices, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said the move would benefit the government in terms of revenue as many gas discoveries have been made by public sector companies rather than private sector.
The company is looking to invest more than $3 bn over the next three years.
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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.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp, which had last year firmed up an investment of Rs 34,012 crore (USD 5.076.37 billion) in bringing to production 10 oil and gas discoveries in its Bay of Bengal block KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5), plans to invest another Rs 21,528.10 crore (USD 3.2 billion) in developing the ultra-deepsea UD-1 find.
Oil Min rejects RIL arbitration notice.
The main losers on the Sensex were Tata Steel, Hero Moto, BHEL, ONGC & Maruti Suzuki.
RIL, which had made four consecutive gas discoveries with close to 500 billion cubic feet of in-place reserves in block, proposed immediate relinquishment, its minority partner Hardy Oil and Gas plc of UK said on Wednesday.
Experts say finding a solution within the high court-mandated timeline of six months may be tough.
Post-cessation, activities related to the safe shutdown of the field are underway.
Delhi Police claims that the FIR reveals serious cognizable corruption & cheating offences, so matter is within its jurisdiction.
While the government had in June approved a new formula for pricing of all domestically produced natural gas, the Cabinet yesterday allowed the same principles to also be applied to Reliance Industries' currently producing fields in KG-D6 block subject to certain conditions.
The list includes CAG's request dated July 2, 2012 for information on award of contract for laying of a 1,395-km pipeline by Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd for shipping KG-D6 gas from east coast to the west.
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.
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.
Government has put on auction the gas discovery area it snatched from Reliance Industries in KG-D6 block and the field that Cairn India is seeking to regain around its Rajasthan block.
They also voiced concerns over a double penalty being sought to be imposed on them for KG-D6 fields output not matching targets.
Government had proposed a revised investment plan for the main gas fields in the KG-D6 block.
As CAG found Reliance Industries was being favoured in gas exploration deal to the government's detriment, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the then top auditor Vinod Rai that audit should not hurt the private sector and RIL was one of the biggest and most respected.
The search for that one stock that transforms a virtual beggar like me into a profligate millionaire might be over, says Mudar Patherya.
The government will now examine the report and decide on how and to what extend should ONGC be compensated for its gas being produced by RIL.
The bank guarantee, which will be equivalent to the incremental revenue that RIL will get from the new gas price, will be encashed if it is proved that the company hoarded gas or deliberately suppressed production at the main D1&D3 fields in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block since 2010-11.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RIL) might be denied a higher gas price from its D1 and D3 fields until the arbitration process with the government is over and a third-party expert report on the fall in output at the KG-D6 block is out.
ONGC has suffered a loss of over Rs 30,000 crore due to alleged siphoning off of natural gas by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) from the PSU's well in Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin and appointment of an experts body on the issue "will not help", the state-run oil firm said.
Reliance Industries would repair a third of the wells shut at its main gas field in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block to boost output in the first quarter of 2014.
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.
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.
RIL may go to arbitration which may lead to further delay in production and extra cost associated with the arbitration.
RIL produced a total of 13.58 mmscmd of gas from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields and MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in Bay of Bengal in the first week of February, which rose to 13.63 mmscmd in the following week.
RIL has maintained it had followed the production sharing contract (PSC) in letter and spirit and done no wrong and it has drilled all wells within its boundary.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday registered eight more preliminary enquiries in connection with issues related to intercepted phone calls of lobbyist Niira Radia against former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, Reliance Industries Limited and others in separate cases.
The govt auditor also indicts DGH and management committee of D1 and D3 fields
ONGC must tackle several issues first only then it can turnaround its fortunes.
To proceed with a Cabinet proposal to grant the relaxations to RIL, the Election Commission's approval will be sought.
Govt notification on $8.4 a unit price likely by month-end
Govt depts, banks prone to information leakage.
For India's upstream sector that has seen no new discovery coming into production.
ONGC takes Reliance to court, alleging years of stealing from its offshore block and a sleeping govt, right after it was agreed there would be a probe by experts.
Gas price hike seems to be a distant dream for Reliance Industries and its partners--Niko Resources and BP.
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