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.
bp had last year bought 49 per cent stake in the 1,400-odd petrol pumps and 31 aviation turbine fuel stations owned by RIL for $1 billion.
Amidst Finance Ministry raising prospects of forcing Reliance Industries to sell gas at old price of $4.2, Oil Minister M Veerapa Moily on Thursday said there was no rethinking in the government on the decision to double gas rates from April 1, 2014.
Reason behind for the change in his stance: gas price increase.
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.
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Following adverse media reaction to the June 27 decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the finance ministry had issued an office memorandum asking the petroleum ministry to see if there was a way to make RIL clear its gas supply backlog at the existing price.
The government had in October 2007 set a sale price of $4.20 per million British thermal unit based on the price discovered by RIL from key customers.
RIL has proposed to charge the government- fixed rate for natural gas on a gross calorific value (GCV) basis, instead of net calorific value (NCV).
The Cabinet on Thursday decided to allow Reliance Industries to almost double the price of natural gas from April provided the firm gave a bank guarantee to cover its liability if gas-hoarding charges are proved.
A report, by DeGoyler and MacNaughton, has put a question mark on the future production from the five ONGC discoveries.
The arbitration clause is present in almost 95 per cent of corporate agreements, according to tax and audit firm Ernst & Young.
The old guard is still involved in broad corporate decision-making, but quite a few new business heads have started making their mark at the group
Pooling will also kick-start projects of Reliance Power, Torrent, Lanco.
The company had assets in countries like Yemen, Peru, Oman, Myanmar, Columbia, East Timor, Kurdistan and Australia, but it exited almost all these blocks later as part of its portfolio rationalisation
Reliance Industries will have to provide a bank guarantee of $135 million every quarter to get a higher price for natural gas from April 1 next year.
The plant has been shut since 2013 for want of domestic gas supplies.
The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has approved a hike in gas prices from April 2014.
If approved, gas price will rise to $6.775 per million British thermal unit from $4.2 currently.
The rates, on net calorific value (NCV) basis, dropped to $ 5.05 per mmBtu for six month period beginning April 1, 2015.
Companies to hold rates in Delhi until new government is formed.
For India's upstream sector that has seen no new discovery coming into production.
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.
Cabinet may tweak Rangarajan formula; new price may be further delayed.
A Texas company will submit a report by June on whether a company controlled by RIL 'stole' natural gas from the wells where ONGC is contracted to operate in the KG basin, as alleged by ONGC.
Transparency International, a non-profit organisation fighting against corruption and malpractices, gave Reliance Industries and ONGC ninth and 26th positions, respectively, in its latest report Transparency in Corporate Reporting.
Isha and Akash, 23, were appointed to the boards of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, the company said.
RIL's December quarter performance is likely to be muted
Year 2013 saw business leaders facing the ire of hostile investigative agencies.
The company has been in talks with ConocoPhillips and Shell for some time. It now says the MoD's stringent norms on exploration in 'no-go' areas is posing a big challenge in taking the deal forward.
Ministry returns guarantee saying new price has not been notified and RIL would have to submit surety as and when it is announced.
Norway-based Aker Solutions, appointed by ONGC to explore the possibility of sharing RIL's infrastructural facilities on the East Coast, is expected to submit its final report next month, sources close to the development said.
The reduction in natural gas prices would mean lower raw material cost for compressed natural gas (CNG) and natural gas piped to households (PNG).
Goyal's statement comes in the wake of RGPPL board giving its approval last month for the conversion of debt into equity equivalent to interest dues of Rs 405 crore (Rs 4.05 billion).
A four-member panel of secretaries is likely to submit its report on a new gas pricing mechanism to the government by Wednesday.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp, which had last year firmed up an investment of Rs 34,012 crore (USD 5.076.37 billion) in bringing to production 10 oil and gas discoveries in its Bay of Bengal block KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5), plans to invest another Rs 21,528.10 crore (USD 3.2 billion) in developing the ultra-deepsea UD-1 find.
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RIL with a market cap of Rs 2,98,776 crore (Rs 2,987.76 billion) is the country's second most valued company after Tata Consultancy Services.
The oil ministry is rejecting the monetisation of new discoveries as their production will not be viable at the present price of $4.2 per mmbtu
In a presentation prepared for the incoming Narendra Modi-government, the ministry listed national oil companies losing focus on domestic exploration as well as legal disputes around signed contracts with private explorers among the five things that went wrong during the United Progressive Alliance regime.
While a new formula for pricing of all domestically produced natural gas was notified on January 10 and published in Gazettee on January 17, the Election Commission last month asked the government to defer its implementation till general elections are completed.
Analysts cut upstream firms' FY15 earnings estimates, while raising those for GAIL and Gujarat Gas.
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