Floods in Gujarat continued to disrupt half of India's natural gas production for the second day on Wednesday, threatening power generation in north and CNG supplies to automobiles in the national capital.
The government has approved a hike in natural gas prices by 12 per cent to Rs 3,200 per thousand standard cubic meters from Rs 2,850 for power and fertiliser units.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries Limited began gas production from the Krishna-Godavari basin in April, 2009, and its 60 million standard cubic metres per day output led to a 75 per cent jump in natural gas availability in the country to 140 mmscmd.
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An equal joint venture between British Gas (BG) and GAIL, Mahanagar Gas (MGL) provides piped natural gas (PNG) in and around Mumbai. The company says it is now planning to extend its reach by entering more cities in Maharashtra.
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UBS Investment Research in its latest report estimated that ONGC and GSPC may get at least $5.5 per million British thermal unit for natural gas they will pump out from their respective Krishna-Godavari basin blocks. RIL is to get a fixed price of $4.2 per mmBtu for gas it would produce from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in KG-D6 block from December-January, for the next five years.
The current price is among the lowest in Asia Pacific.
After months of a bitter row over legalities of Indraprastha Gas Ltd's operations in the National Capital Territory, the oil regulator has authorised the company to retail CNG (compressed natural gas) to automobiles and piped gas to households.
Reliance Gas, which had successfully bid for three cities -- Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh and Yanam in Pondicherry -- during the second round of bidding for CGD in 2009.
Opposition parties in the Indian Parliament walked out of the Rajya Sabha after their demand for an immediate discussion on the alleged mismanagement at the Maha Kumbh, where a stampede led to several deaths, was rejected. The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, declined to suspend the scheduled business of the day to take up the issue, citing his previous rulings regarding notices under Rule 267.
RIL had drawn 58.67 bcm of gas from four wells.
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.
A group of ministers will meet on Wednesday to discuss the revision of natural gas prices after a gap of four years and consider change in the country's main trunk gas pipeline HBJ's transportation tariff.
Industrialist Anil Ambani met Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Wednesday, seeking natural gas allocation for his group's upcoming power projects.
The government on Wednesday mandated the petroleum ministry to hold dialogue with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Myanmar to secure natural gas supplies through pipelines to meet demand of the country.
The group of ministers' meeting on Tuesday on raising natural gas price for fertilizer and power units and setting up a regulator for the oil sector remained inconclusive.
Oil regulator PNGRB has virtually put Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on notice by inviting bids for sections of two natural gas pipelines that were previously awarded to the Mukesh Ambani-run firm.
The government may soon raise prices of natural gas produced by state-owned ONGC and Oil India by as much as 30 per cent, Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan said on Monday.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, has proposed to buy the entire gas production from Sakhalin-I field in Russia and import the same in the form of LNG to India.
Committee of secretaries is working on the formula and it is understood that EAC is also being asked to go through the formula.
Wholesale inflation in the country rose for the fourth consecutive month in June at 3.36 per cent on account of rise in prices of food articles, especially vegetables and manufactured items. The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation was 2.61 per cent in May. It was (-) 4.18 per cent in June 2023.
Essential and strategic items such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, copper, and energy products like oil, gas, coal and LNG are exempted from the 27 per cent import duty announced by the US on Wednesday, according to think tank GTRI.
State-run Gas Authority of India Ltd on Monday said the government's decision to raise natural gas prices by 12 per cent would not affect its profitability.
The growth rate in the production of eight key sectors slowed down to a 20-month low of 0.1 per cent in October on account of contraction in the output of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, and cement, according to the official data released on Wednesday. In October last year, these sectors expanded by 8.7 per cent. In September this year, the core sectors' output growth stood at 7.8 per cent.
Reliance Industries Limited's chairman Mukesh Ambani last week told company shareholders that his firm will supply gas to ADAG plants as and when they are ready and it is subject to the allocation being made by the government.
The output of eight infrastructure sectors registered a growth of 3.6 per cent in March 2023, the slowest in five months, showed government data released on Friday. The output of core sectors had increased by 7.2 per cent in February 2023 and 4.8 per cent in the year-ago month. The previous low was 0.7 per cent in October 2022.
Indraprastha Gas Ltd, whose initial public offer of 4 crore equity shares opens on Friday, plans to expand supply of compressed natural gas to automobiles in Delhi's adjoining cities like Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad.
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The government on Thursday more than doubled the price of natural gas that is used to produce electricity, make fertilisers, turned into CNG and piped to household kitchens for cooking, on the back of a spike in global energy prices. The price of gas produced from old regulated fields, such as the nation's largest gas field of Bassein of ONGC, will rise to a record high of $6.10 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from the current $2.90 per mmBtu, according to the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). The new price, which is likely to result in a hike in CNG and piped cooking gas rates, will be for six months beginning April 1.
India on Tuesday ruled out importing natural gas from Iran through an onland pipeline.
Citing the May, 2010, Supreme Court ruling that upheld the government's right to frame gas utilisation policy, the ministry last week wrote to Reliance directing it to first supply natural gas from its KG-D6 fields to priority sectors like fertiliser and power, official sources said.
Reliance Industries will invest $1.7 billion in a project in the United States for extracting gas from shale, a sedimentary rock, in joint venture with Atlas Energy Inc.
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