Oil ministry this week issued written instructions to the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run firm to make a 'pro-rata' cut in gas supplies to all existing customers if the production from its KG-D6 field cannot support new customers, two sources with direct knowledge of the information have said.
RIL has slapped an arbitration notice challenging oil ministry's decision to take away 814 square kilometer of its eastern offshore KG-D6 area that contained five gas discoveries.
The proposed expansion of the Dabhol power project under Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL) by 2,100 Mw from the present capacity of 1,940 Mw has been stalled for want of assured gas supply from the KG-D6 gas field, operated by Reliance Industries Ltd, and adequate number of power procuring states.
Reliance had committed to drill 22 wells in the Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields or D1, the largest of 18 gas discoveries in the block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in the Bay of Bengal, by April 2011 to produce 53.4 million standard cubic meters of gas per day (mscmd).
In its annual work program submitted to upstream oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Reliance stated that natural gas output from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 or D1 and D3 gas fields in the block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6, will be about 38 mmscmd in 2012-13 from current production level of 43-44 mmscmd.
RIL said production capacity from KG-D6 has far exceeded the 40 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd), for which buyers have been tied-up, and has asked the government to immediately name customers for an additional 25 mmscmd so as to avoid irreversible damage to the field reservoirs.
The length of the main trunk pipeline is 1,385 km from Kakinada to Bharuch and 75 km is the length of the spur lines.
They also voiced concerns over a double penalty being sought to be imposed on them for KG-D6 fields output not matching targets.
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG D-6 field's gas production will double to around 90 million standard cubic meters per day by next fiscal, government's background material for the Economic Editor's Conference said.
The petroleum ministry has said Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is not right in seeking an out-of-turn rise in the price of natural gas produced from the KG-D6 fields and asserted the $4.205 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) rate will prevail unless pricing formula is changed.
The beleaguered Dabhol power plant will from October 1 start buying natural gas from Reliance Industries to cut electricity generation cost at the nation's largest gas-fired unit.
Contract does not provide for retrospective penalty for 'such' acts
An empowered group of ministers on April 9 decided to give any unutilised KG-D6 gas to steel plants who are currently not being supplied their full share of administered price fuel, official sources said. After gas-based steel plants, allocations would also be made to existing gas-fired power plants and to other power plants, including captive power plants depending upon the availability of the unutilised gas.
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 has been selling gas from KG-D6 at the same price since it started production in April 2009.
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.
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.
With this, the total penalty on RIL for missing the target in four fiscal years beginning April 1, 2010 now stands at a cumulative $2.376 billion, the Minister informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
"The letter approving a price of $4.20 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) for first five years of production from KG-D6 was issued by the Petroleum Ministry on Thursday," a source familiar with the development said.
Reliance in the first phase is developing Dhirubhai-1 and 3, the first two of the 15 discoveries in the 7,645-square- kilometre KG-D6 block. Initial output is likely to be 40 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd), which will rise to 60 mmscmd in 2009-10.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had first on June 27, 2013, and then on December 19, 2013, decided to price all domestically produced natural gas, including unconventional fuels such as coal-bed methane and shale gas, at an average of international hub rates and the cost of importing liquefied natural gas.
The company is in advanced talks with Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Chennai Refinery and Kochi Refineries for sale of 34,000 barrels per day of oil it will start producing from the gas-rich KG-D6 block on Krishna Godavari basin from September. The company is investing $2.234 billion in developing the MA-1 and MA-2 oil fields in the predominantly gas-rich block.
CPM leader Tapen Sen has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a probe into what he called 'artifical inflation' in Reliance Industries' KG-D6 spend and the Mukesh Ambani-run firm's 'manipulation' of gas price.
RIL has more than half a dozen undeveloped discoveries.
Government had proposed a revised investment plan for the main gas fields in the KG-D6 block.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation said on Tuesday it was making an annual loss of Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) on sale of gas at administered prices even as Reliance Industries stated it followed a transparent process to discover the price of gas.
RIL has maintained it had followed the production sharing contract (PSC) in letter and spirit and done no wrong and it has drilled all wells within its boundary.
Reliance Industries Limited has made two natural gas discoveries on the east and west coast adding to the vast hydrocarbon reserves it has found in the past few years.
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 department has proposed to pool prices of imported and domestically produced natural gas.
Gas pricing guidelines stipulate that a new gas price will apply to all producers except RIL.
The government on Thursday more than doubled the price of natural gas that is used to produce electricity, make fertilisers, turned into CNG and piped to household kitchens for cooking, on the back of a spike in global energy prices. The price of gas produced from old regulated fields, such as the nation's largest gas field of Bassein of ONGC, will rise to a record high of $6.10 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from the current $2.90 per mmBtu, according to the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). The new price, which is likely to result in a hike in CNG and piped cooking gas rates, will be for six months beginning April 1.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons last month recommended to the Oil Ministry that $792 million of the cost RIL has incurred in KG-D6 fields be disallowed for producing only an average of 26.07 million cubic meters per day of gas as against the target of 86.73 mmcmd in 2012-13.
Energy supermajor Exxon Mobil Corp is in talks to buy a stake in producing oil and gas fields in India, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday showcasing efforts to raise domestic output to cut imports. Exxon Mobil had in October last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to offer its expertise and technology for developing resources in offshore blocks.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries on Friday reported a 43 per cent jump in its September quarter net profit as its businesses from oil to retail fired on all cylinders, growing both sequentially and on a year-on-year basis. Net profit of Rs 13,680 crore, or Rs 20.88 per share, in July-September compared with Rs 9,567 crore, or Rs 14.84 a share, in the same period a year back, the company said in a statement. While better realisation and a sharp rise in crude oil prices benefited the old-economy business, retail saw footfalls at stores reach pre-Covid levels and per user earning from telecom business rose.
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.
Prices of natural gas, which is used to produce fertiliser and generate electricity and is also converted into CNG for use in automobiles as fuel and cooking gas for households, are set every six months -- on April 1 and October 1 each year.
Reliance concealed and did not reveal the data to ONGC.
RIL estimates output from KG-D6 could reach up to 60 mscmd in the next five years, when all satellite fields are brought into production.
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