RIL has raised the marketing margin to $0.15 per million British thermal unit from $0.12 per mmBtu earlier, a source said. The rate, which would be charged over the $4.20 per million British thermal unit base gas price, is however lower than the $0.18 per mmBtu margin charged by state-run GAIL. The increase, he said, was due to the additional risk of 'ship-or-pay,' an obligation under which the company would be obliged to transport the committed volumes or pay for the gas.
The Norwegian company, which has already taken a 10 per cent stake in the KG-DWN-98/2 block, has the right to double its interests before the gas discoveries are put to production but it is now keen on operatorship and a higher stake in the block, company sources said. ONGC is in dire need of deep water production technology and is likely to agree for a joint operatorship of the block but is not willing to give 30 per cent stake in Norsk Hydro.
The company has been in talks with ConocoPhillips and Shell for some time. It now says the MoD's stringent norms on exploration in 'no-go' areas is posing a big challenge in taking the deal forward.
The company is in advanced talks with Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Chennai Refinery and Kochi Refineries for sale of 34,000 barrels per day of oil it will start producing from the gas-rich KG-D6 block on Krishna Godavari basin from September. The company is investing $2.234 billion in developing the MA-1 and MA-2 oil fields in the predominantly gas-rich block.
The new year promises to be a busy year with brand new airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore, the launch of the Rs 1-lakh-car, unlocking of the gas riches in the Krishna-Godavari basin, and Jamnagar housing the world's biggest refinery complex.
Reliance Industries Limited has made two natural gas discoveries on the east and west coast adding to the vast hydrocarbon reserves it has found in the past few years.
Reliance Industries on Wednesday assailed reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General and expert P Gopalakrishnan, which have alleged the company got undue benefits pertaining to Krishna-Godavari basin gas and its pricing.
India's biggest oil and gas bid round attracted four bidders that included state-owned ONGC and OIL and private sector Vedanta Ltd, with most blocks getting just two bids, according to Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). The OALP-IX bid round, where 28 blocks or areas spread over 1.36 lakh square kilometre were offered for finding and producing oil and gas, for the first time saw Reliance Industries Ltd-bp plc combine bidding together with ONGC for one block in Gujarat offshore.
The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on gas headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday decided that gas allocation from RIL's D-6 block will be made to power projects subject to availability and without prejudice to court decisions, according to a government release.
ONGCt has made another significant oil and gas discovery in its Krishna Godavari basin.
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.
RIL and its partners BP Plc of UK and Canada's Niko Resources had last month spud the seventh well on the MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin.
RIL and its partners BP plc of UK and Canada's Niko Resources have spud the seventh well on the MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin.
The government has slapped a $2.81 billion (about Rs 24,500 crore) demand notice on Reliance Industries and its partners, including BP Plc for gains made from producing and selling natural gas that may have migrated from neighbouring block of state-owned ONGC. This follows the Delhi high court's decision on February 14, overturning an international arbitration tribunal ruling that held the duo not responsible for paying any compensation for the gas they produced and sold which had allegedly migrated from adjoining fields.
BPCL is a high revenue-earning public-sector undertaking (PSU) and plans to privatise it are completely off the table, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday after assuming charge of the ministry for the second time. "Why would we divest ourselves of highly successful Maharatnas like BPCL," Puri said, arguing the Centre was not in favour of divesting its stake in oil PSUs.
The stage for negotiations to settle the Krishna-Godavari basin dispute is long over, says a government official
The Supreme Court on Friday granted six weeks time to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to respond to the final CAG report which found alleged irregularities including in payments made to the contractors on drilling of D6 wells at the Krishna-Godavari basin.
After the success of Barmer oil fields in Rajasthan, Cairn India - the second largest oil and natural gas explorer in the country - bets heavily on wildcat drilling.
Sugarcane, which is grown by no more than 1.1 million farmers, consumes 70 per cent of water available in Maharashtra for irrigation. In contrast, about 10 million jowar, pulses and oilseeds farmers get only 10 per cent of irrigation water, points out Abhishek Waghmare.
With pricing of natural gas from the KG-D6 block stuck, Mukesh Ambani made the second trip to New Delhi this month to meet top officials.
RIL and BP completed the initial exploratory work on the 21 blocks, but decided to retain only four of them.
The KG-D6 fields, which began production in April 2009, hit a peak output of 69.43 mmscmd in March 2010 before water and sand ingress led to more than a third of the wells shutting down.
The govt is mulling the need to exercise its rights under the gas production-sharing contracts.
Saurabh Patel, energy minister, Gujarat, who has handled the energy portfolio since 2002, speaks to Archis Mohan on GPSC's investment in the KG basin and says the criticism is politically motivated.
Reliance Industries on Monday said it has no plans to spin off its Krishna Godavari gas field into a separate company and rope in a strategic partner.
An open letter to the prime minister on the Rangarajan formula doubling the price of KG basin gas
The approval is required to put through gas sales agreements with customers, which in turn are required to finalise Gas Transportation Agreements with transmission companies.
India's east coast is emerging as one of the hydrocarbon hotspots in the world with 100 trillion cubic feet of gas and two billion barrels of oil in place.
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.
BG Group of UK is planning to buy stake in ONGC's oil and gas blocks.
The crux of the ongoing court case between Reliance Industries (RIL) and Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) on Monday was pricing of the gas produced from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh owes an explanation to citizens on why Jaipal Reddy was shifted as minister of petroleum and natural gas.
Company indicates estimates of reserves needed to be cut.
Likely to drill three additional exploration wells in the block before the end of 2010.
Sequel to firm's announcement of cut in K-G gas reserves after long decline in output; agency says it expects decline in cash flows.
Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources continued its attack on the government for allegedly favouring brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on the sale price of gas from the Krishna Godavari D6 basin. At $4.2 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), the price fixed, there is a premium of more than 100 per cent over the gas available through the administered pricing mechanism, it said.
The company is in talks with BG India and Italian E&P major, ENI.