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.
Directorate General of Hydrocarbons Director General Rajiv Nayan Choubey did not take calls made for comments.
According to a source close to the development, the government is set to come out with a notification in this regard by the end of this week.
The petroleum and natural gas ministry has asked the Planning Commission to constitute a committee to suggest a mechanism to average out prices of imported and domestic gas--a move expected to make gas prices uniform for consumers.
The trade war between the US and China is expected to benefit Indian exporters in increasing their shipments to the American market, sources said. They said the country was the fourth-largest gainer when the US imposed higher duties on Chinese goods during US President Donald Trump's first tenure.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam sought response from the Centre and RIL on a PIL filed by Communist Party of India Member of Parliament Gurudas Dasgupta who alleged that no due diligence was done by the government while increasing the price of natural gas.
The Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas in a report tabled in Parliament said the proposed formula is a simple average of two methodologies -- price of imports of LNG into India by different suppliers, and weighted average of prices of natural gas prevailing at Henry Hub in USA, National Balancing Point in London and netback import price at the well head of suppliers into Japan.
Board would start selling the bid documents on November 22.
ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R S Sharma on July 30 wrote to Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan seeking immediate hike in price of gas it sells under regulated regime as it was incurring Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) loss on the business.
Government has set $4.20-per million British thermal unit as the selling price for D6 gas, but the Bombay high court last month asked RIL to supply gas to firms run by Anil Ambani Group at $2.34 per mmBtu, 44 per cent lower than the price fixed by the government.
Iran and Pakistan have signed a deal in Turkey paving the way for constructing the much- delayed natural gas pipeline that was originally envisaged to extend up to India.
The Petroleum Ministry in an order on Wednesday said it has revised guidelines for allocation/supply of domestic natural gas to city gas distribution entities for CNG and piped cooking gas sector.
Two years after it was first constituted, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board continues to move ahead in a patchy manner -- it is inviting bids for 2,800 km of cross-country pipelines and 1,200 km of spurlines next week; it is in the process of fixing tariffs for the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Gas Transportation India Limited pipeline. Its chairman L Mansingh spoke at length on several of these issues to Sunil Jain.
In a written reply to a question, he said commercial production of oil from Reliance KG-DWN-98/3 block or KG-D6 commenced in September at the rate of 10,000 barrels of oil per day. Reliance and its Canadian partner Niko Resources has established 570 million tons of oil and oil equivalent gas reserves in the block.
Gail India subsidiary Mahanagar Gas (MGL) on Friday announced a steep reduction in the retail price of compressed natural gas (CNG) by Rs 8/kg and domestic PNG (piped natural gas) by Rs 5/SCM across its licenced area. The move comes on the heels of the Centre revising the pricing methodology of domestically-produced natural gas on Thursday as proposed by the Kirit Parikh committee and following it with the new price announcement earlier in the day. In February, the city gas distributor reduced its CNG price by Rs 2.5/kg but prices are still around 80 per cent more than those in April last.
The government cannot exercise its sovereign rights twice over.
Fertiliser, power plants plan expansion in anticipation
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has opposed the proposal of a new pipeline from Kakinada to Srikakulam floated by Andhra Pradesh Gas Infrastructure Corporation (APGIC). RIL has argued that gas availability for the pipeline is uncertain and will not contribute to the development of a national gas grid.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, scheduled to meet on June 22, could take a call on ending uncertainty on taxing foreign airlines and shippers as regards certain services, a senior official in the know told Business Standard. He said the Council was expected to decide on exempting the services in question from GST - aircraft lease rentals, maintenance, crew salaries, etc. These services are provided by foreign airlines to their Indian operations.
Lowering excise duty on petrol, diesel, and other fuels, branded fuels.
The newly set up Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has received over 100 applications from domestic and foreign companies interested in supplying gas to domestic households and vehicles in cities.
RFRL Group President A N Sethuraman on September 3 filed three separate applications with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board for licences to sell CNG to automobiles and piped gas to households in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad etc.
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.
The International Finance Corporation is the private sector arm of the World Bank GSPC Gas, which is in the business of distributing natural gas to households and vehicles in Gujarat, has lined up an initial investment of $140 million for laying new pipelines for gas and building the infrastructure needed for gas distribution in cities. It may use the IFC fund to partly finance this expenditure.
It added this wasn't aimed at benefiting Reliance Industries Ltd alone.
The petroleum ministry has put on back burner the proposal to create a national gas highway development authority, following an opposition from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, which currently has the powers to authorise pipelines.
The complaint states that journalists blocked his way at the guest house, the source said without elaborating.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was to give away the awards but he could not attend because he was travelling.
Launching a major global initiative for attracting foreign investment in the hydrocarbon sector, India on Monday held a roadshow in London for auctioning 55 oil and gas exploration blocks.
Vedanta's Cairn Oil & Gas on Thursday announced the appointment of Nick Walker as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. In a statement, the company said the appointment is effective January 5. "Before this appointment, Walker was president and chief executive officer at Lundin Energy, one of the leading European independent E&P companies," it said.
Modi govt is committed to extend the piped gas networks in the country to 30,000 kms in the next 15 years as against the 15,000 kms network today
The asset it owned by Venugopal Dhoot and a US oil and gas explorer.
Tata Projects (Hyderabad), Tractebel Engineers and Constructors Pvt Ltd (New Delhi), Germanischer Lloyd Industrial Services (Mumbai) and Bureau Veritas (India), Pvt Ltd (Mumbai) are among the 13 agencies which will perform technical audit of city gas projects.
Of Trump's reciprocal tariffs and trade deals
'Trump does have a master plan in mind to put pressure on India with the additional tariff of 25 per cent to get Modi to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to freeze the Ukraine war.' 'It has not worked so far. By end-September only we'll know for sure the future trajectory of India's oil purchases from Russia,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Government has no role in fixing prices of natural gas produced from areas auctioned under NELP and only approves the pricing formula, petroleum ministry has told a committee of Secretaries appointed to look into the vexed issue.
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.
Reason behind for the change in his stance: gas price increase.
