A day after Reliance Industries Ltd announced sale of 30 per cent interest in its 23 oil and gas blocks, Canada-based Niko Resources, RIL's partner in three fields - D6, NEC 25 and D4 - on Tuesday said it has the option to increase its stake in the fields by up to 30 per cent from current working percentages.
Upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons has sent notices to Reliance Industries and Niko Resources of Canada, seeking explanation as to how they arrived at the increased figure of 35.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas reserves.
The government nod to Reliance Industries selling 30 per cent stake in its oil and gas blocks such as eastern offshore KG-D6 to London-based BP Plc for $7.2 billion hinges on no-objection certificate (NOC) from Canada's Niko Resources and UK's Hardy Oil and Gas.
Reliance Industries' flagging KG-D6 gas block holds 80 per cent less reserves than previously estimated, the firm's junior partner Niko Resources of Canada said.
Current operations on Cambay include completing the planning for the drilling programme and construction of the three well sites for the first phase of drilling, now likely to commence in late June.
The government has formed a four-member panel of secretaries to suggest a new gas pricing mechanism.
The near-doubling of gas prices to $8 per million British thermal units that will kick in from next month will accrue to all producers in the country.
Sources said the Cabinet had in December last year stipulated that the new gas rate will apply to all producers excepting eastern offshore KG-D6 block where the contractor, which is fighting government against levying penalties for output shortfall, will have to give bank guarantees equivalent to the incremental revenue it would get from the new rates.
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.
A market-based gas pricing regime is to kick-in from next month.
Reliance Industries Ltd has discovered huge oil reserves in its gas-rich D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin off the east coast, its minority partner Niko Resources of Canada has said.
The Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin may prove to be a much bigger play for Reliance Industries Ltd. This follows the announcement that its D4 block could hold twice the reserves of the in-production D6 block to the north.
Reliance Industries Ltd has found new natural gas reserves in Krishna Godavari basin D6 block off the east coast, the company's minority partner Niko Resources has said.
Reliance Industries Ltd and its Canadian partner Niko Resources will invest over $2 billion in bringing to production their gigantic gas field in the Bay of Bengal and laying pipelines to transport the fuel.
RIL is keen to hike gas price from April 2014 but due to some technical glitches, it may not be able to pass on burden of high production cost to customers.
Reliance Industries, which has proposed to invest $1.5 billion more in developing satellite gas finds in the prolific KG-D6 block, will drill six wells this year.
The government on Tuesday clarified that no papers of sensitive nature were ever given to Mukesh Ambani-run RIL or its Canadian partner Niko Resources, and added they were provided only those papers needed to implement the decision on pricing of natural gas from their field.
Reliance Industries has found natural gas reserves in a well drilled on its NEC-25 block in Mahanadi basin, off the Orissa coast, the company's junior partner Niko Resources of Canada said on Friday.
RIL, which holds 90 per cent interest in KG-D6, paid $2.47 million while Niko Resources of Canada paid USD 274,767 in profit petroleum for the April-June quarter, officials said.
The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, has signed a $40 million loan agreement with Calgary-based Niko Resources Limited for expansion of its production base in Gujarat.\n\n\n\n
Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission has formally pressed charges against detained former premier Khaleda Zia for allegedly contracting out several gas fields to a Canadian oil company in exchange for kickbacks.
Reliance Industries has put the cost of producing natural gas from its prolific Krishna Godavari basin fields at $2.9 per million British thermal unit and the firm will earn a pre-tax return of 13 per cent.
Reliance Industries Ltd will invest $8.84 billion in producing 80 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas from its KG-D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin.
Media reports said junior energy minister A K M Mosharraf Hossain had accepted a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser Cygnus from Niko Resources in return for delaying a multimillion dollar compensation claim.
Indian Oil Corporation, the country's largest refiner, has put up a war chest of $2 billion for acquiring a medium-sized foreign oil firm to set up its own exploration and production division.
Reliance Industries' gas field off the Orissa coast holds 2.3 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, more than double the previous estimates.
Reliance Industries plans to invest $200 to 250 million during the current fiscal in drilling new wells at its D6 gas block in Krishna Godavari basin, off the Andhra coast.
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.
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 is on the verge of a 16th gas discovery in deep sea block D6 off the Andhra coast, and has made a sixth consecutive gas find in block NEC-25, off Orissa coast.
If proved correct, MJ-1 would the third biggest gas field in KG-D6 after D1&D3.
The government has slapped an additional penalty of $792 million on Reliance Industries for producing less than targeted natural gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 block.
The Delhi high court (HC) division Bench on Thursday sought a response from Reliance Industries (RIL) and others regarding the government's appeal against the Mukesh Ambani-owned conglomerate and others for fraudulently and unjustly enriching themselves by draining gas from their deposits, amounting to over $1.5 billion. The Centre had appealed against the single-judge Bench order of the Delhi HC on May 9, which had dismissed its petition. Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani had upheld the international arbitration award of July 24, 2018, in favour of the RIL-led consortium. The consortium includes UK-based BP Plc and Niko Resources of Canada.
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.
RIL's Dhirubhai-34, or R-Cluster field, in the flagging KG-D6 block was to produce about 13 million standard cubic metres per day of gas, equivalent to present day output from D1&D3 as well as MA fields, by 2017-18.
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