Among the documents that Arvind Kejriwal handed out in his press conference on Wednesday, was a page from the letter from the former minister of petroleum and natural gas, S Jaipal Reddy, and marked as annexure 5, to Reliance Industries about its KG Basin oil extraction
The gas market in India is at an inflection point. The increase in gas supplies would also promote setting up of brownfield and greenfield projects
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.
Blaming RIL for delay in starting its Dadri power project, RNRL said it was RIL's wrongful conduct that delayed its gas-based power plant by four years. However, it had sought a direction to RIL to supply the gas immediatley to it. On July 7, the Supreme Court issued notice to RIL, RNRL and the Centre (as intervener) on cross-appeals by both the companies on their gas supply dispute.
Reliance Industries and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will present their views as producers on pricing of natural gas on Tuesday to a panel of top government officials formed to resolve the vexed issue.
RIL is grappling with other priorities -- sliding oil prices, shrinking refining margins and a battle with the Anil Ambani group over the supply of gas. The plan was to build an integrated pharma company in two to three years, on the lines of large domestic majors such as Ranbaxy's or Dr Reddy's Laboratories. Instead, the plan has been modified to being a start-up bulk drug manufacturing company that will launch six bulk drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients by 2010.
CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta on Tuesday welcomed Arvind Kejriwal government's move to file criminal cases against Reliance Industries and Union minister Veerappa Moily, among others, on gas pricing issue.
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.
Reason behind for the change in his stance: gas price increase.
'To sustain our growth trajectory, we must continue to explore and capitalise on growth opportunities.'
Natural Gas production from KG-D6 block has dropped to below 20 million standard cubic metres a day this week, from over 63 mmscmd peak output achieved in August 2010.
An empowered group of ministers headed by Defence Minister A K Antony is to consider an Oil Ministry proposal of abolishing the priority ranking later in the day, according to which natural gas is first given to urea manufacturing fertiliser plants, then to LPG units, followed by power plants, city gas, steel and refineries.
GAIL, which currently markets 4.8 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from the fields lying in western offshore, will now get to market the entire output of 15.5 mmscmd from PMT fields, a move that will boost the company's annual revenue by about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion), official sources said.
State-run NTPC has agreed to buy natural gas from Reliance Industries but is opposed to paying marketing margin to the private firm and wants to use the fuel at plants other than Kawas and Gandhar that were identified by the government.
Apart from RIL, home-loan lender HDFC, pharma company Sun Pharma, auto major Hero Honda and software exporter Infosys have emerged among the top 100 wealth creators in the past one decade.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani met top government officials on Tuesday, including Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary to the prime minister, to explain his company's approach to pricing of natural gas to be produced from KG basin.
Reliance had in December, 2009, submitted to the regulator an optimised development plan for four satellite gas fields around the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields in the KG-DWN-98/3, or KG-D6, block.
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.
RIL has so far drilled six wells on the MA oilfield, the only oil discovery among the 19 oil and gas finds the company had made in the eastern offshore KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block.
Reliance Industries has inked deals to supply gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 fields to most power sector consumers, including Essar Power and an Anil Ambani Group firm.
"The fire broke out due to gas leak in RIL's Moti Khavdi refinery in Jamnagar early this morning," a police official of Meghpar police station said.
Reliance Industries Ltd, on Thursday announced that it has struck gas off the Orissa coast in Bay of Bengal.
Reliance Industries has sought environment ministry approval for a $13 billion upgrade to its Jamnagar complex, including a 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery.
The government on Tuesday increased the windfall profit tax on crude oil produced in the country and reduced the levy on exports of diesel. The tax, levied in the form of Special Additional Excise Duty or SAED, on domestically produced crude oil was increased to Rs 9,800 per tonne from Rs 9,050 a tonne, according to an official notification. SAED on the export of diesel was reduced to Rs 2 per litre from Rs 4 a litre and on jet fuel or ATF to nil from Rs 1, the notification said.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had first on June 27, 2013, and then on December 19, 2013, decided to price all domestically produced natural gas, including unconventional fuels such as coal-bed methane and shale gas, at an average of international hub rates and the cost of importing liquefied natural gas.
The government has allowed Reliance Industries Ltd and Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd to sell kerosene outside the public distribution system, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday.
The two sides had approached Supreme Court challenging a decision by the Bombay high court on June 15, which said RIL should provide 28 million cubic metres of gas per day to RNRL at $2.34 per mmBtu and both the parties should sign a necessary agreement for the same within a month.
The state-run company may soon buy nearly 20 per cent stake in two shale gas acreages - Eagle Ford shale and Barnett shale - in the US.
Resuming arguments over its dispute with Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Natural Resources Ltd, senior counsel Harish Salve said it was RNRL which had in 2007 argued that marketing freedom cannot be allowed to the Mukesh Ambani-run firm and asked the government to frame Gas Utilisation Policy.
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.
Mukesh Ambani-led RIL said on Friday it would not be possible to supply gas to Anil Ambani group firm RNRL without the government's nod and requested the Supreme Court not to restrain it from selling gas to others.
Reliance has submitted an initial development plan (IDP) for six gas discoveries in the NEC-25 block in Orissa, envisaging a production rate of 35-40 million standard cubic meters per day.Reliance has not detailed a production schedule from the six discoveries where it estimates a total potential of 8.2 Trillion cubic feet, of which 1.1 Tcf is recoverable.
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.
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.
Post-cessation, activities related to the safe shutdown of the field are underway.
Reliance Industries has drilled two new wells in its KG-D6 gas block, but both have turned out to be almost dry, with very little hydrocarbon presence, vindicating the company's stand that indiscriminate drilling will not help solve the problem of falling gas output.
Reliance Industries (RIL's) annual report released on Sunday highlighted the company's focus on new energy solutions, with chairman and managing director (MD) Mukesh Ambani stating that the age of fossil fuels will not continue much longer. RIL has sought shareholders' approval to give Ambani another five-year term as MD till 2029 at nil salary. The recently demerged Jio Financial Services, which "will leverage the prowess of digital and retail businesses", was expected to be listed soon.
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