Last week, RIL and urea companies failed to settle the key terms of gas supply from April 1 upon expiry of the five-year contracts that priced gas from the eastern offshore KG-D6 fields at $4.205 per million British thermal units.
Development plan for K-G basin runs for 12 years, so can't supply to RNRL for 17 years, says RIL.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, has walked away with half of the natural gas that Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner bp of the UK offered in the latest auction of the fuel used to generate power, produce fertilizer, turned into CNG and used for cooking purposes. IOC got 2.5 million standard cubic meters per day out of the 5 mmscmd of gas auctioned last month, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The oil refining and marketing company, which was the top bidder even in the previous auction of gas from the eastern offshore KG-D6 block of Reliance-bp, bid the volumes on behalf of seven fertilizer plants.
The EGoM has fixed priority for the 25 million standard cubic metes per day of gas Reliance plans to start pumping from September this year and 40 mmscmd from March 2009. It has asked the company to first supply gas from KG-D6 field, the first major field of NELP to go on production, to existing gas-based urea plants, which are now getting fuel below their full requirement.
GAIL India's ambitious pipeline project - Dahej Uran Pipeline project - has been delayed beyond its set deadline of March 31, 2007
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.
A division bench of Justices J N Patel and K K Tated said that the new agreement should be as per the memorandum of understanding between the Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil. The MoU stipulates that RIL would supply 28 mmscmd of gas to RNRL for 17 years at the rate of $2.43 per million British Thermal Units.
Though crude oil prices in the market are at a record high and analysts say they could breach the $200-per-barrel mark soon, consumption has grown rapidly in India as prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas are heavily subsidised by the government and its oil production and marketing companies. Higher demand, coupled with higher prices, is also likely to drive up the country's oil import bill to over $100 billion in this financial year.
Following the heated exchanges, the bench rose early for the day, to resume the hearing on Tuesday. The schedule of hearing was changed and according to the current estimate, it will end by mid-December, just before the year-end holidays.
The GST Council on Saturday postponed a decision on cutting tax rate on life and health insurance premiums, officials said. The 55th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, decided that some more technicalities needed to be ironed out and tasked the GoM for further deliberations.
Lawyer T S Doabia told the court the government's approval was necessary for the rate at which RIL sells the gas to other private parties. The division bench of Justices J N Patel and K K Tated pointed out that, according to RNRL, the government stated in Parliament it would not be fixing the gas price, except for its own share. When told this was not contrary to what Doabia was saying, the court asked him to file an affidavit, clarifying the government's position.
The price of cooking gas piped to household kitchens in the national capital and adjoining cities was hiked by Rs 2.63 per unit on Friday, the second increase in rates in less than two weeks. Piped cooking gas in Delhi will now cost Rs 50.59 per standard cubic meter, as against Rs 47.96 previously, according to Indraprastha Gas Ltd - the firm that retails CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in the national capital and adjoining towns. The increase is to "partially offset the increase in input gas cost," IGL said in a tweet.
After experiencing an 11 per cent contraction in exports in 2023-24 (FY24) due to a dip in exports for 10 consecutive months from April to January, the Tiruppur textile industry is back on track in 2024-25 (FY25). The cluster, which contributes 55 per cent of the country's total knitwear exports, posted a 13 per cent increase in the first five months of this financial year (FY25), with August seeing a 22 per cent rise - the highest in over two years.
Justice Anoop V Mohta, delivering the final verdict in the gas supply row between RIL and Reliance Natural Resources Limited, asked the two companies to decide on a new gas price, as the rate of $2.34 per mBtu agreed in the family de-merger agreement had already been rejected by the government.
Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries fears that gas supplied to Reliance Natural Resources, belonging to younger brother Anil Ambani, would be traded to a third party as RNRL does not have a power plant, said Harish Salve, the legal counsel of RIL.
GAIL has already been appointed as the nodal agency for the pipeline in India.
Iran on Friday invited India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to Tehran for signing a tri-nation deal on natural gas, supply of which could start from 2011.
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.
RNRL and Mukesh Ambani's RIL are fighting a legal battle over the terms of gas supply agreement for Anil Ambani Group's gas-based Dadri power project. Two weeks ago, government lawyer Mohan Parasaran had stated in the court that the Empowered Group of Ministers had decided that $4.2 per mmbtu would be the minimum price of KG basin gas.
Clean air needs action all year round; and that it will work only if we act jointly and at scale, asserts Sunita Narain.
The Bombay High Court on Monday asked Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Natural Resources Ltd to renegotiate within four months, a Gas Supply Master Agreement (GSMA) between them saying it has to be a "bankable" pact.
The dreary, cold months from December to February may prove to be the undoing of many a nation as they grapple with sky-high fuel prices - a result of the Ukraine conflict and the pandemic. Many - Europe, South Korea, Japan, and China - will still pull through on the strength of their wealth or because of strong storage infrastructure. But India will have its back to the wall. Signs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates hitting new records this winter are already evident.
So far, GMTS has defaulted on the supply of more than 20 cargoes or shiploads, 13 of which were set to be received in the second quarter (July-September), officials said.
India may have to lean more on West Asian nations for supplies of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a cooking fuel, in the coming years after Indian state-run refiners drew up big plans to diversify into producing more profitable petrochemicals. This shift leads to reduced LPG output, Indian refining executives said. The mantra for state-run oil companies, from Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) to liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer Petronet LNG, which are looking to diversify their businesses from lower-margin fuels, has been value-added petrochemicals.
Housemates will face shortage of gas supply as their report card verdict isn't too good!
India's economic growth slowed to near two-year low of 5.4 per cent in the July-September quarter of this fiscal due to poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors, but the country continued to remain the fastest-growing large economy, data showed on Friday. The gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 8.1 per cent in the July-September quarter of 2023-24 fiscal. The previous low level of GDP growth at 4.3 per cent was recorded in the third quarter (October-December 2022) of financial year 2022-23.
Amid the scorching heat, with temperatures soaring between 47 and 50 degrees Celsius, irregular electricity supply has added fuel to the fire, aggravating problems for people, farmers, and the industrial sector. While the state's Bhajan Lal Sharma-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government claims to be improving the power supply, the opposition is trying to corner the government on the issue. Amid all this, undeclared power cuts are continuing in districts including the capital, that are already facing power cuts.
The India-US nuclear deal was aimed at ending India's nuclear isolation and nuclear apartheid, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
The Anil Ambani group, fighting a legal battle for securing 28 mmscmd gas for Reliance Natural Resources from RIL at a price of $2.34 per mmBtu under a family settlement, had last week questioned the marketing margin and had informed RIL that it would not pay the same.
Crude and gas supply concerns have eased amid reports that Israel and Hamas have struck a peace deal. The International Energy Agency estimates oil demand may drop slightly in calendar 24 but Opec probably has enough pricing power to maintain $80/ barrel Brent prices. Russia's share of India's crude imports remained strong at about 35 per cent in September 2023.
Global brokerage firm CLSA has reversed its early tactical shift from Indian equities to Chinese stocks, and has decided to raise India allocation while cutting exposure to China. In its report titled 'Pouncing Tiger, Prevaricating Dragon', CLSA cited challenges facing Chinese markets in the aftermath of Donald Trump's victory in the US elections as the reason for the move. "Misfortune can happen in threes. So it has played out for Chinese equities over the past week.
Pakistan is allegedly working on an offensive chemical and biological warfare program with the help of its 'all-weather friend' China.
BPCL is a high revenue-earning public-sector undertaking (PSU) and plans to privatise it are completely off the table, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday after assuming charge of the ministry for the second time. "Why would we divest ourselves of highly successful Maharatnas like BPCL," Puri said, arguing the Centre was not in favour of divesting its stake in oil PSUs.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) will hold discussions with the Centre and state governments on how the production of compressed biogas (CBG), which can be used in vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG), can be expanded in the country, its majority shareholder Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) said. The demand for CNG vehicles has been rising significantly in the country. MSIL sold 145,000 CNG vehicles in the first quarter of 2024-25, marking a 28.3 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth.
A year after a Hamas attack against Israel on October 7 and the ensuing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, India's trade with most West Asian countries has largely escaped any major disruption, except with countries like Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. However, repeated flare-ups of geopolitical tensions in the region continue to drive up shipping and logistics costs.
The government should bring natural gas under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for a gas-based economy and raising the share of the environment-friendly fuel in India's energy basket, an industry body that represents the likes of Reliance Industries as well as state-owned firms, has said. Natural gas is currently outside the ambit of GST, and existing legacy taxes -- central excise duty, state VAT, central sales tax -- continue to be applicable on the fuel. In its pre-Budget memorandum to the finance ministry, Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), which boasts of members from across the oil and gas spectrum, also demanded rationalisation of GST on transportation of natural gas through pipeline as well as on re-gasification of imported LNG to help bring down cost of the environment friendly fuel.
The 62 per cent increase in natural gas prices by the Indian government will boost the profitability of upstream companies in the country and support their investment spending, Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday. The price for gas from fields that were assigned by the state to oil companies, mainly Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), increased to $2.90 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) for October 2021-March 2022, from $1.79 per mmBtu in the previous six months. "Higher gas prices will increase the input cost for key end-consumer sectors, to the extent the price hike is passed on," Fitch said.
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.
Bangladesh currently faces a daily shortfall in gas supplies of 500 million cubic feet