'Sweden removed the inheritance tax because many of the rich were fleeing. For example, the owner of IKEA had migrated out of Sweden'
Shares of Reliance Industries plunged on Friday after a court ruling that the Mukesh Ambani-led company can not sell its KG basin gas to any company except NTPC and Anil Ambani group's Reliance Natural Resources.
Previously, chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana had written to the Centre seeking 7.5-8 million standard cubic metres per day each of RIL's KG-D6 field gas for power plants in their respective states immediately.
RIL Director P M S Prasad addresses the many charges laid at the company's door.
Re-instatement of 5% custom duty on crude imports will help.
Read the full text of the Supreme Court ruling in the Krishna Godavari Basin gas dispute between Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd and Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd.
RIL now has the capacity to produce 60 mmscmd but is constrained to produce less as the government is yet to identify customers beyond the initial 40 mmscmd that had been allocated primarily to fertiliser and power producers in accordance with the Gas Utilisation Policy.
Mittal said his steel plants were getting gas at no less than $6 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), much lower than the $4.33 per mBtu price proposed by RIL.
State-run NTPC Ltd is likely to sign by month-end an agreement to buy natural gas allocated by the Centre from Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries Ltd at government-approved rate of $4.20 per mmBtu, power secretary H S Brahma said on Wednesday.
EC on Monday asked the government to defer notifying doubling of price of the fuel produced by companies such as Reliance Industries till general elections are completed.
State-run gas utility GAIL India Ltd buys 0.9 million standard cubic meters per day of output from Ravva Satellite fields at $4.30 per mmBtu. The new price sought by the Ravva consortium is 60 per cent more than the maximum price of $4.20 per mmBtu approved for RIL's KG-D6 fields for five years to March 2014.
IAC activist Arvind Kejrival yesterday claimed that Jaipal Reddy was shunted out of petroleum ministry due to his opposition to gas price revision.
DGH director general V K Sibal objected to Hardy, which holds 10 per cent stake in RIL-operated D3 and D9 blocks, making 'an unwarranted, unethical and premature announcement that is bound to mislead' and influence share price. Sibal on May 29 wrote to Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman C B Bhave asking the market regulator to take up with its counterpart in London the unauthorised statement made by Hardy about its assessment of reserves in the two blocks.
Australia's Oilex on Monday said it has made huge natural gas discovery in Gujarat that may hold over 1.5 Trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves. Industry estimates put the total resource base or inplace reserves in the Cambay basin discoveries near the town of Khambat, 160-km south of Ahmedabad, at between 20-30 Trillion cubic feet, almost equivalent to inplace reserves of Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 fields.
In a letter to the state principal secretary (energy and petrochemicals) S Jagdeesan on September 4, RIL executive director PMS Prasad said NTPC is currently buying natural gas on spot basis, which could potentially increase the cost of power by about Rs 1,500 crore.
Sources familiar with the developments said the government will file an application in the Bombay High Court by the end of December or early January. RIL on its part has already appealed against the order.
The previous United Progressive Alliance government had last year approved pricing of all forms of domestically produced gas at according to a formula suggested by a panel headed by C Rangarajan.
RIL had drawn 58.67 bcm of gas from four wells.
The ratio is based on the valuation made by consultancy firm KPMG.
"There is no change in situation. It may take a couple of days for the water to recede and restart of the facility," an ONGC official said.\n\n
Reliance Energy on Wednesday signed the State Support Agreement (SSA) with Uttar Pradesh for sale of electricity from the world's largest gas-based power plant of 3740 MW at an investment of over Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion).
The government plans to impose an additional penalty of $578 million on Reliance Industries for producing less-than-targeted natural gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 block.
State gas utility GAIL India on Tuesday won rights to retail CNG and piped cooking gas in two of the six cities auctioned and is set to win for another two cities, while its joint venture with Hindustan Petroleum beat Reliance Industries to bag another city.
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 government told the Bombay high court on Friday that the empowered group of ministers decided that Mukesh Ambani-led RIL will start supplying gas from the KG basin to Anil Ambani's Dadri power project and other upcoming power plants once it is ready to begin operations.
Reliance Industries has already stepped up gas production from 28 mmscmd in June to about 36-37 mmscmd now. The production will soon reach 42 mmscmd once the supply to the Dabhol power plant is increased in the first week of October, said a company official.
Moily said several gas fields of both RIL and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp were economically unviable to produce at current rate of $4.2 per million British thermal unit.
Dilip Shanghvi's Sun Oil & Natural Gas, signed a deal for the transfer of Interlink Petroleum's interest in the Modhera and Baola fields.
Reliance Industries has made drastic changes in gas supply contracts that will jack up its KG-D6 gas price by 10 per cent over and above the new rate of $8.3 coming into effect from next month.
GAMES-TOURISM Tourism industry asked to cash on C'Wealth Games New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) With over one lakh foreigners expected to throng the city during Commonwealth Games, tourism industry must gear up to reap the benefits, Tourism Minister Kumari Selja said today.
Reliance Industries has written to the government that it has no objection to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India auditing its gas field costs and said it is operating the field in compliance with rules.
A nearly two-fold hike in natural gas prices will incentivise investment in the hydrocarbon sector and help reduce the energy import bill, India Inc said.
Reliance Industries has said that it had in December 2005 signed a contract to sell natural gas to NTPC at $2.34 per mmBtu price for 17 years, but it was the state-run firm that did not reciprocate.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd is taking the Bombay High Court order of June 15 on gas supply to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd to the Supreme Court."We have been advised to and are filing appropriate proceedings in the Supreme Court against the judgment delivered by the Bombay High Court," it told RNRL in a mail, in reply to an earlier letter sent in the day by the former, demanding that the HC judgement be implemented without more delay.
RIL and its partners BP plc of UK and Canada's Niko Resources plan to produce about 13 million standard cubic metres per day of gas for 13 years from D-34 discovery, known as R-Cluster, in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block by 2017-18.
Welcoming the amendments proposed by the government to its petition on the Ambani gas row, Anil Ambani on Tuesday said his group company RNRL's dispute with Mukesh-led RIL was commercial and pertained to the demerger of the Reliance businesses.
If proved correct, MJ-1 would the third biggest gas field in KG-D6 after D1&D3.
It would be complete by 2012 with a total investment of over Rs 11,300 crore, including an estimated Rs 2,300 crore from RIL and Rs 9,000 crore from GAIL. Analysts say refineries -- Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Essar, Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation -- located in the vicinity of these pipelines would benefit as they would be able to substitute costly fuel oil with cheaper gas.