Reliance Industries Ltd has filed with the government a multi-billion dollar plan to develop the gigantic D6 gas field off the Andhra Pradesh coast, with production starting in August 2006.
The state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has walked away with bulk of the 21 oil and gas exploration blocks in the fourth round of new exploration licensing policy.
Government had proposed a revised investment plan for the main gas fields in the KG-D6 block.
Industrialist Anil Ambani on Tuesday dared the petroleum ministry to take back the ownership of gas fields from Reliance Industries Ltd if it seriously believed that terms of the contract were violated by Mukesh Ambani-led firm, which he alleged was wanting to make a super-profit of Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion).
After a series of flip-flops, NTPC is likely to finally sign an agreement with Reliance Industries this week to buy government-allotted natural gas at officially approved price of $4.20 per mmBtu.
Non-core sponge iron plants, petrochemicals units and oil refineries have cornered as much as 13.13 million cubic metres per day out of the 60.76 mmscmd of KG-D6 gas allocated.
The ministry has attributed the fall in output to non-fulfilment of RIL's commitment to drill 22 wells in the field.
A four-member panel of secretaries is likely to submit its report on a new gas pricing mechanism to the government by Wednesday.
IOC-OIL have decided to hold 25% stake in RIL's East Timor oil and gas block.
Natural gas output from KG-D6 in the week ended June 24 dropped to 30.82 mscmd from 31.57 mmcmd in the beginning of the month, according to a status report filed by the company with the Oil Ministry.
From the Sensex pack, Reliance Industries fell the most by 2 per cent. Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, ITC, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, Titan, Axis Bank and Bajaj Finance were among the other major laggards.
Oil Ministry is likely to announce the new rates sometime this week.
The output comprised 32.94 mmscmd from the D1 and D3 gas fields and 6.86 mmscmd from the MA oilfield.
Reliance Industries on Saturday said it had never contested the government's right to get the company's spending on KG-D6 gas fields audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General but hoped it will not be subjected to a performance audit."RIL has at no time contested the government's right to conduct an audit by any agency, including the CAG, as provided in Section 1.9 of the Accounting Procedure of the PSC," the company said in a statement on Saturday evening.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted six weeks time to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to respond to the final CAG report which found alleged irregularities including in payments made to the contractors on drilling of D6 wells at the Krishna-Godavari basin.
CNG and piped cooking gas prices in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai may be hiked by 10-11 per cent next month as the government-dictated gas price is set to rise by about 76 per cent, ICICI Securities said in a report. The government, using rates prevalent in gas-surplus nations, fixes the price of natural gas produced by firms such as state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) from fields given to them on nomination basis, every six months. The next review is due on October 1.
Likely to drill three additional exploration wells in the block before the end of 2010.
In the run up to the general election, Aam Aadmi Party had alleged that RIL's partner Niko Resources was selling KG-D6 gas in Bangladesh for half the $4.2 per million British thermal unit rate that India pays them.
Reliance Industries (RIL) has cut estimates for proven gas reserves in its Krishna-Godavari block off the east coast by 6.7 per cent, to 3.67 trillion cubic ft (tcf), the company said in its annual report.
RIL and its partners BP Plc of UK and Canada's Niko Resources had last month spud the seventh well on the MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin.
The commission asks for notification to be deferred; RIL's KG-D6 pricing issue may return to Cabinet
An empowered group of ministers headed by Defence Minister A K Antony is to consider an Oil Ministry proposal of abolishing the priority ranking 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.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is set to win seven of the 20 oil and gas blocks auctioned in January while Reliance Industries would bag six.
In all, 61 companies have been pre-qualified to bid for 11 shallow water and 19 deepwater blocks in an international tender, according to Myanmar's Energy Ministry.
RIL, which had made four consecutive gas discoveries with close to 500 billion cubic feet of in-place reserves in block, proposed immediate relinquishment, its minority partner Hardy Oil and Gas plc of UK said on Wednesday.
The company's net profit was Rs 5,972 crore in the same period of 2014-15 fiscal.
Profit from its retail business jumped 77 per cent to Rs 1,923 crore and that from telecom rose by 78.3 per cent to Rs 2,665 crore.
Reliance Industries has since April stopped selling gasoline and gas oil to Iran in an apparent bid to escape sanctions by the US, where it is eyeing an acquisition.
The Union Cabinet in June decided to price all domestically produced natural gas at an average of the price prevailing at international gas trading hubs and the actual cost of importing liquid gas.
While the government had in June approved a new formula for pricing of all domestically produced natural gas, the Cabinet yesterday allowed the same principles to also be applied to Reliance Industries' currently producing fields in KG-D6 block subject to certain conditions.
Cabinet may tweak Rangarajan formula; new price may be further delayed.
Gas output from KG-D6 in the week ended April 1 dropped to 33.89 mmscmd from 34.09 mmscmd in the previous week, according to a status report filed by the company with the Oil Ministry.
Reliance Industries is believed to have signed agreements to sell gas from its eastern offshore KG D-6 fields to six power producers, including GVK, in Andhra Pradesh.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation had in 2007 farmed out 15 per cent stake in the KG-DWN-98/2 block, which sits next to Reliance Industries' KG-D6 block, to Brazil's state-controlled oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA or Petrobras.
RIL is currently producing 36 mmscmd gas from KG-D6, half of which goes to power plants. The firm has the capacity to produce 60 mmscmd but is constrained to produce less as the government is yet to identify customers for buying gas beyond the initial 40 mmscmd, allocated primarily to fertiliser and power producers in accordance with the Gas Utilisation Policy.
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.
Contract does not provide for retrospective penalty for 'such' acts
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