The government on Thursday decided to join the arbitration initiated by Reliance Industries and its partners over delay in revision of natural gas prices, and named former Supreme Court judge G S Singhvi as its arbitrator.
The official explained that the contractor would take the worst-case scenario into account "to be on the safe side", when working out the field development plan and the probable cost of exploration and development of the block.
The EGoM is to consider fixing users for about 50 million cubic meters per day of KG-D6 gas, official sources said. This is in addition to the initial 40 mmscmd output that was previously distributed primarily to urea and power plants.
The government on Monday refused to review its decision rejecting the price of natural gas proposed to be sold by Reliance Industries Ltd to an Anil Ambani group firm.
Pooling will also kick-start projects of Reliance Power, Torrent, Lanco.
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.
India's crude oil production fell 2.15 per cent in October as state-owned firms produced less but, natural gas output rose by a quarter on the back of output from KG-D6 fields of Reliance-BP, government data released on Tuesday showed. Crude oil production dropped to 2.51 million tonnes in October, as output from fields operated by Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) dipped. While ONGC produced 4 per cent less crude oil at 1.64 million tonnes, OIL output dropped 1.46 per cent to 2,53,000 tonnes.
"There would be no impact on the government at all and it would suffer no loss whatsoever. RIL would also make a profit of Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) at this rate," RNRL said in an affidavit before a bench headed by chief justice K G Balakrishnan.
Reliance Industries has proposed to invest an additional $1.5 billion in bringing to production four gas discoveries adjoining its prolific gas fields in Krishna-Godavari basin in the country's east coast.
Reliance Industries on Friday dubbed as a "canard" allegations that the near-doubling of natural gas prices will lead to a similar hike in domestic cooking gas (LPG) and inflation in food item rates.
ONGC has suffered a loss of over Rs 30,000 crore due to alleged siphoning off of natural gas by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) from the PSU's well in Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin and appointment of an experts body on the issue "will not help", the state-run oil firm said.
A committee of secretaries is already looking into the issue of pricing, which companies like RIL, British Gas and British Petroleum have said should be market-determined.
Market breadth was positive; of 2,896 stocks traded on the BSE today, 1,496 advanced, while 1,275 declined.
Reliance Natural Resources Ltd chairman Anil Ambani is understood to have sought a review of the government's decision, rejecting the sale of natural gas by RIL to it.
RIL's KG basin started pumping gas in April and is currently producing 37-38 mscmd.
As the government began consultations with stakeholders on raising gas prices, gas producers and consumers met a committee of secretaries separately with their pleas on the issue.
BP, which bought a 30 per cent stake in RIL's 21 oil and gas blocks, including KG-D6, for $7.026 billion in 2011, is working with RIL to arrest the output decline in the fields.
Adani is the fastest growing energy company in Asia-Pacific and the second fastest in the world
With RIL's KG-D6 output playing truant, steps need to be taken to stabilise the country's natural gas production.
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 gas fields at peak production will help the nation save $8.3 billion annually or 0.7 per cent of the GDP, investment banker Morgan Stanley said on Friday.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said on Wednesday that the government's move to disallow it recovery of certain costs relating to the D6 gas block in the Krishna-Godavari basin (KG-D6) did not amount to a penalty and was also not in line with the contract the two had signed.
Reliance Industries Ltd will invest $8.84 billion in producing 80 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas from its KG-D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin.
Companies with more than Rs 10,000 crore of debt would seek refinancing.
The oil-to-telecom conglomerate reported an 8.8 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 10,251 crore, or Rs 17.3 per share, in the third quarter ended December 31, 2018.
The rates, on net calorific value (NCV) basis, dropped to $ 5.05 per mmBtu for six month period beginning April 1, 2015.
It is shut due to high water and sand ingress and it awaits regulatory nod to carry out urgent workover.
A market-based gas pricing regime is to kick-in from next month.
India's corporate sector is likely to report a slowdown in revenue growth and earnings for the July-September 2023 period (Q2FY24), according to earnings estimates by brokerages, after the country's top listed companies posted higher than expected profits for the first quarter. The combined net profit of Nifty50 companies, based on brokerage estimates, is expected to have grown by 19.6 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 1.75 trillion in Q2FY24 - a sharp deceleration from 37.6 per cent Y-o-Y growth in the combined earnings of index companies in the April-June 2023 period. According to estimates, the combined earnings in the second quarter would be down 8.8 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) basis and the lowest in the past three quarters.
The Election Commission asked the government to defer announcement of the new price till completion of the polls and so RIL was asked to continue selling the gas at old rates.
Nifty50's earnings growth, estimated at 20 per cent by global research and brokerage firm Jefferies for financial year 2023-24 (FY24), will be amongst the top three in the Asian region, and is likely to outperform peers. Asean 40 index with 29.1 per cent estimated earnings growth and Straits Times Index (STI) with 29.1 per cent estimated earnings growth are the only two other indices in the Asian region that are likely to outperform India, suggests the recent Jefferies report, coauthored by Mahesh Nandurkar, their managing director along with Abhinav Sinha and Nishant Poddar.
Hike would have led to higher cost of fertiliser, electricity and even CNG.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Monday laid bare the succession plan at India's most valuable company, identifying twins children Akash and Isha for telecom and retail leadership, and youngest son Anant for new energy unit. He, however, insisted he isn't retiring yet and will "continue to provide hands-on leadership as before". At the annual shareholders' meeting of Reliance Industries Ltd, he said the robust architecture that he has announced will ensure the firm remains "a unit, well-integrated and secure institution even as it develops existing businesses and adds new growth engines."
The DGH said that RIL's initial production from the D6 block is likely to be of around 15 million standard cubic metres per day.
India's production of crude oil, which is refined to produce petrol and diesel, continued to decline in November, with lower output from state-owned firms leading to an over 2 per cent drop, official data released on Tuesday showed. Crude oil production in November was 2.43 million tonnes, down from 2.48 million tonnes a year back and 2.5 million tonnes in October 2021. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) produced 3 per cent less crude oil at 1.6 million tonnes in November due to delays in mobilising equipment at western offshore fields.
Govt notification on $8.4 a unit price likely by month-end
Reliance Industries (RIL) is looking at yet another shale gas acquisition in North America, its third in three months. The transaction is said to be in line with RIL's recent acquisition of a 45 per cent stake in Eagle Ford shale acreage of Pioneer Natural Resources. Sources in the company confirmed the development.
Export Development Canada has announced its $100 million participation in a 10-year $2 billion syndicated loan for Reliance Industries Limited.
RIL and its British partner BP Plc had proposed undertaking concept validation and Front End Engineering Design for all the 16 gas discoveries surrounding the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in the 7,645 sq km KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block.
Reliance Industries Limited on Wednesday became the first Indian company to hit the Rs 19 lakh crore market valuation mark following a rally in its share price. The market heavyweight stock jumped 1.85 per cent to its record high of Rs 2,827.10 on the BSE. Following the gain in the share price, the company's market valuation jumped to Rs 19,12,814 crore in morning trade on the BSE.
Kakinada is fast turning from a rice growing area to a buzzing town, thanks to Reliance's gas terminal.