On July 27, power ministry had written to the oil ministry saying 'the marketing margin being charged by RIL is not in line with the decisions of an empowered group of ministers on pricing formula (for KG-D6 gas)'. While Anil Ambani Group firm RNRL on Sunday alleged that RIL was charging 'unauthorised' marketing margin, 35 firms buying KG-D6 gas are paying the $0.135 per mmBtu to RIL without protest.
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.
The petroleum ministry is mulling filing a defamation suit against an Anil Ambani Group firm for persisting with 'false claims' pertaining to government revenues from Reliance Industries KG-D6 fields.
RIL's KG basin started pumping gas in April and is currently producing 37-38 mscmd.
India's largest refiner, Reliance Industries Ltd, is in talks with public sector oil marketer Hindustan Petroleum Corporation for a tie-up to run the former's fuel retail outlets, closed a year earlier.HPCL has issued a limited tender to five merchant bankers to advise it on the deal.Last year, RIL closed 1,400 petrol pumps -- 900 owned by the company and the rest managed by dealers.
In the face of oil minister's comment that Reliance Industries Ltd gas to NTPC could be given at a government-approved price, the state-owned power major on Saturday said it will continue to fight legally for the fuel's contracted price and seek power ministry's help.
RIL, which holds 90 per cent interest in KG-D6, paid $2.47 million while Niko Resources of Canada paid USD 274,767 in profit petroleum for the April-June quarter, officials said.
The government has put a spanner in the plans of oil companies like Reliance Industries Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited to make ethanol directly from sugarcane, without producing sugar.
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 natural gas field will have a peak output of 80 million cubic metres per day for six years beginning 2011-12, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada said.
Scrapping of the EoU status to petroleum refineries was one of the demands of the Samajwadi Party after it decided to support the United Progressive Alliance government, which is set to face a trust motion in the Lok Sabha. "Amar Singh had met me, but there were no discussions on the EoU issue," said the commerce minister. Nath said everyone has the right to demand changes but it did not mean that the government would act on it.
Government has set $4.20-per million British thermal unit as the selling price for D6 gas, but the Bombay high court last month asked RIL to supply gas to firms run by Anil Ambani Group at $2.34 per mmBtu, 44 per cent lower than the price fixed by the government.
Reliance improved its ranking this year to 121 from 142 last year, with a market value of $50.6 billion and assets worth $91.5 billion.
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
The government on Tuesday clarified that no papers of sensitive nature were ever given to Mukesh Ambani-run RIL or its Canadian partner Niko Resources, and added they were provided only those papers needed to implement the decision on pricing of natural gas from their field.
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.
Within days of approving a price formula for gas to be produced by Reliance Industries, the government said on Friday it will ask the Mukesh Ambani company to prioritise fuel sales to fertiliser plants, city gas and existing power plants.
P M S Prasad has been part of Mukesh Ambani's A-team for the last 25 years. The 55-year-old engineer, now president and CEO (petroleum), Reliance Industries, joined the company in 1984, when it was building a captive power plant at Patalganga, 70 kilometres north of Mumbai.
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.
Fertiliser, power plants plan expansion in anticipation
Higher reliance on GST receipts for revenue reduces states' autonomy as these receipts depend on tax rates decided by the GST Council, a report by Delhi-based non-profit, PRS Legislative Research shows.
The commerce ministry has proposed a three-year extension of tax benefits given to Export-oriented Units in an attempt to encourage export industries at a time when global demand is expected to slump further.
Company in talks with Reliance Capital, Apollo Pharmacy to offer new services at outlets.
Companies like Reliance Industries, which plans to produce natural gas from KG basin from 2008, will have to invite bids from consumers to discover the price of output under a new exercise adopted by the government.
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.
Budget has already bombed at the box office and passing it without a revisit will be a mockery of the exercise though any modification may be short lived and perfunctory, observes V Ranganathan.
Could get $8.4 per mmBtu from April 2014 by furnishing bank guarantee that would be encashed if D1, D3 gas hoarding proved
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RIL) might be denied a higher gas price from its D1 and D3 fields until the arbitration process with the government is over and a third-party expert report on the fall in output at the KG-D6 block is out.
The petroleum ministry has rapped Reliance Industries for failing to meet its obligations of opening and operating 10 per cent of its petrol and diesel retail outlets in remote and low-service areas.
RIL had drawn 58.67 bcm of gas from four wells.
Petroleum Ministry has sought help from Law Ministry in resolving the Ambani demerger issue over the production of gas from KG fields.
Natural gas producers like Reliance Industries will need government approval for the formula used to calculate the price of the fuel, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Tuesday.
RIL accounted for over a quarter of the country's LPG production of around 8.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) last year. Around 2.5 mtpa LPG - the only petroleum product in which India is not self-sufficient - was imported last year to meet the domestic demand of 11 mtpa. RIL is planning to cut LPG production at Jamnagar from 2.3 mtpa to around 1.6 mtpa from mid-2008 following the grant of export-oriented-unit (EoU) status to the refinery.
Reliance Industries Ltd has received the prestigious Golden Peacock Innovation Award for the year 2005 in the petroleum sector.
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.
Reliance Industries leads the pack of 56 Indian companies.
About two dozen discoveries of the state-owned ONGC, Reliance Industries and the Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) in KG Basin alone are languishing for want of right price.
The government may permit Reliance Industries Limited to export surplus LPG from the west coast and allow it to import on the deficit east coast to make huge savings on freight cost.
RIL has denied knowingly producing any gas from the ONGC block
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.
