'If the government starts playing favourites, if the government acts in a manner which is not transparent, then natural resources which belong to not just you and me, but future generations, they fritter away. The anger against corruption, the anger against India's natural resources being looted is a consequence of the fact that within society there is a huge amount of turmoil and discontentment. Why should an Empowered Group Of Ministers or the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decide the administered price of gas?' asks Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in this exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
The newer gas finds will help turn the tide for ONGC, which has seen oil and gas output stagnating in recent times.
'It is very likely to move nearly northwards for next few hour and recurve slowly north-northeastwards along Narsapur, Yanam, Kakinada, Tuni and Visakhapatnam coasts during noon to evening on Wednesday and emerge into west central Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh coasts by night,' the India Meteorological Department said in its national bulletin.
Around 15 years ago, when Reliance Industries (RIL) struck natural gas in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin off the east coast, the government made plans to supply that fuel cheaply to scores of generators that sprang up in India triggered by the discovery. Most of the plants, which account for 6 per cent of India's total generation capacity, operate sparsely after the KG-D6 area first failed to meet production targets, and then finally shut shop. Affordable domestic gas was why those thermal plants came up and the rate of the fuel today is why those generators hardly operate. Record liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates may yet again unravel India's ambitions to expand use of gas in industries, households and vehicles. Rates, while volatile, may stay strong this decade as developed nations with higher purchasing power embrace gas as the transition fuel.
Over the past decade, RIL has never announced lesser dividend to its shareholders even when faced with lower profits
A report, by DeGoyler and MacNaughton, has put a question mark on the future production from the five ONGC discoveries.
The last such incident that killed senior armed forces personnel occurred on November 22, 1963.
The company had received a loan restructuring package from banks under the 5/25 scheme last year.
Training his guns on BJP's prime ministerial candidate again over the Reliance gas issue, the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday asked Narendra Modi whether he will bring down the gas price if he comes to power.
The company will invest $747 mn to increase production from D1, D3 and MA fields.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea seeking stay on arbitration proceedings on a dispute between Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and the government over recovery of cost for developing the country's key natural gas field in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin.
President Pranab Mukherjee, the former trouble-shooter of the Congress party, may informally 'guide' the Union government in drafting the bill on the creation of Telangana.
The death toll due to severe heat wave sweeping Andhra Pradesh has risen to 852 with the scorching weather claiming 202 lives in Prakasam district alone, officials said.
Keshav Joshi's tongue in cheek look at Narendra Modi's mega plans.
The withdrawal of the arbitration will now entitle the two companies to marketing and pricing freedom on the natural gas they produce from newer fields in the deep sea at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore by 2022.
A bus plunges into a canal in Khammam district while a car met with an accident in Chittoor on Monday.
The move is likely to force the government to take a faster decision.
BP, which bought a 30 per cent stake in RIL's 21 oil and gas blocks, including KG-D6, for $7.026 billion in 2011, is working with RIL to arrest the output decline in the fields.
There is no one in Telangana to match KCR's stature and he believes he has outgrown the state, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Krishna district, which accounted for 24 deaths in house collapses and heavy rains, was the worst affected.
One person was killed in a landslide caused by heavy rains in Vijayawada city but no other casualties have been reported from elsewhere so far, according to sources in the State Disaster Management Authority.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 297 points at 27,438 and the 50-share Nifty closed 93 points lower at 8,305.
Sharp improvement in refining margin is expected to be the prime driving force.
Chances are any such disruption will not occur on the major shipping lanes but on some edge of the ocean between India and China. Even if there is no actual disruption, the costs of averting one can be punitive. The setting for this is provided by the energy shortage both countries face, says Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
The Andhra Pradesh Government has taken up evacuation work on a large scale in the rain-affected districts and over 88,000 people have been evacuated so far, officials said on Wednesday.
As many as 71,000 people continued to be in 300 relief camps in six coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh even as the cyclonic storm 'Laila' further weakened into a deep depression and lay centred over the north coastal area about 50 km north of Machilipatnam.
The Group of Ministers constituted for the creation of a separate state of Telangana on Wednesday discussed the sharing of river water and irrigation resources in Andhra Pradesh after the state's bifurcation, but failed to arrive at a resolution.
The RIL stock has halved from an all-time high of Rs 1,626 made (intra-day) on January 15, 2008, to on Wednesday's closing figure of Rs 800.55.
RIL has proposed to charge the government- fixed rate for natural gas on a gross calorific value (GCV) basis, instead of net calorific value (NCV).
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.
The Reliance gas pricing issue is likely to find a place in the Aam Aadmi Party's manifesto as the new party has already indicated that it will be among the major issues to target the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress in the Lok Sabha election.
Torrential rains and resultant deluge in 16 districts of Andhra Pradesh last week left 53 persons dead and caused a loss of Rs 3,756 crore, but the situation is returning to normal with floodwater receding.
The 26-member Cabinet, including the Chief Minister, has three women members; two from the Scheduled Castes and one from the Scheduled Tribes.
Rediff.com highlights the provisions of the controversial Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, which was introduced by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in Lok Sabha on Thursday amidst pandemonium.
In the past as well, questions have come up about the manner in which different benches of the apex court were constituted to resolve disputes involving the Reliance group.
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.
Control Rooms were set up in all the coastal districts and the situation was being monitored round-the-clock.
Reports have put the IPO pipeline between 19 and 30 issues, of Rs 10,000-20,000 crore or Rs 100-200 billion.
Unofficial reports, however, put the toll at 104.
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