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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
Mining magnate Anil Agarwal's conglomerate on Friday announced a major business shake-up, with flagship Vedanta Ltd approving a spin-off of its metals, power, aluminium and oil and gas businesses into separate listed entities and an overhaul of lucrative zinc unit planned as part of value creation and reducing debt load. Vedanta will issue one share of the five demerged businesses for every share held in the company, the firm said in a statement. The entire exercise, which would require shareholder and lender approval as well as a nod from the stock exchanges and courts, is expected to be completed in 12-15 months, its president for finance Ajay Agarwal said.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Post-cessation, activities related to the safe shutdown of the field are underway.
The proposed expansion of the Dabhol power project under Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL) by 2,100 Mw from the present capacity of 1,940 Mw has been stalled for want of assured gas supply from the KG-D6 gas field, operated by Reliance Industries Ltd, and adequate number of power procuring states.
Reliance Industries on Wednesday assailed reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General and expert P Gopalakrishnan, which have alleged the company got undue benefits pertaining to Krishna-Godavari basin gas and its pricing.
India's biggest petrochemicals maker Reliance Industries, whose shares hit a 15-month high earlier on Friday on a newspaper report it had struck gas at a new site, said it would make an announcement later.\n\n\n\n
Reliance Industries Ltd plans to invest over Rs 5,000 crore in setting up City Gas Distribution projects in eight cities in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh for supply of natural gas to households, industries and automobiles.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has struck a large gas field in the Krishna-Godavari basin in Bay of Bengal, home for the gigantic gas find of Reliance Industries Ltd.
Stocks of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) have more headroom left despite the sharp run in the last few weeks, suggests a recent report from Morgan Stanley. Stocks of these oil refining and marketing companies (OMCs), it believes, are seeing multiples re-rate as investors reassess long-term growth prospects. "IOCL trades at one year forward P/BV of 1.2x, 19 per cent below +1 standard deviation (SD); BPCL trades at one year forward P/BV of 1.5x, near historical averages; HPCL trades at one year forward P/BV of 1.5x, near +1SD," Morgan Stanley said.
The government is likely to drop GAIL as the monopoly builder of trunk gas pipelines in the country and as part of opening up the sector, might allow Reliance Industries to lay a line from Andhra Pradesh to Gujarat.
The Petroleum Ministry has proposed a 33 per cent hike in the price of natural gas produced by ONGC and Oil India and gradually increase it to $4.20 per mmBtu set for gas from Reliance Industries' KG-D6 fields.
ONGC and Reliance on Tuesday signed licence agreements for oil and gas blocks awarded to them by the government under the third round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy.
The government has chosen state-run GAIL (India) Ltd over Reliance Industries in setting up a Rs 2,500 crore gas cracker project in Assam.
Oil ministry had previously proposed a 30 per cent hike in price of gas produced by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India Ltd to $2.3 per mmBtu but finance ministry wants these rates to be brought on par with RIL, sources in the know of the development said.
Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, has signed contract for Block 41. The block lies adjacent to Block 18 in Gulf of Oman, which the Government of Sultanate of Oman awarded to RIL in 2005. Block 18 is situated in the offshore Gulf of Oman between Block 41 and the border with the Fujuriah offshore block. The two blocks comprises approximately 21,000 sq km of area each.
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.
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