The growth of eight key infrastructure sectors slowed to 6.7 per cent in February, compared to the same month in 2023, on account of poor performance of some sectors like fertiliser, according to official data released on Thursday. However, the growth rate is higher than January this year.
RIL had drawn 58.67 bcm of gas from four wells.
A group of ministers will meet on Wednesday to discuss the revision of natural gas prices after a gap of four years and consider change in the country's main trunk gas pipeline HBJ's transportation tariff.
The output of eight key infrastructure sectors jumped by 12.1 per cent in October 2023 against 0.7 per cent expansion in the year-ago period on account of a sharp uptick in production of coal, steel, cement and electricity, according to the official data released on Thursday. These numbers assume significance as the eight core sectors -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity -- contribute 40.27 per cent to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). Growth was primarily driven by a low base effect and double-digit growth in four sectors -- coal, steel, cement and electricity.
Industrialist Anil Ambani met Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Wednesday, seeking natural gas allocation for his group's upcoming power projects.
The government on Wednesday mandated the petroleum ministry to hold dialogue with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Myanmar to secure natural gas supplies through pipelines to meet demand of the country.
The group of ministers' meeting on Tuesday on raising natural gas price for fertilizer and power units and setting up a regulator for the oil sector remained inconclusive.
Oil regulator PNGRB has virtually put Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on notice by inviting bids for sections of two natural gas pipelines that were previously awarded to the Mukesh Ambani-run firm.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have criticised the government for issuing the order to control communal tension in Dhubri town.
Around 15 years ago, when Reliance Industries (RIL) struck natural gas in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin off the east coast, the government made plans to supply that fuel cheaply to scores of generators that sprang up in India triggered by the discovery. Most of the plants, which account for 6 per cent of India's total generation capacity, operate sparsely after the KG-D6 area first failed to meet production targets, and then finally shut shop. Affordable domestic gas was why those thermal plants came up and the rate of the fuel today is why those generators hardly operate. Record liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates may yet again unravel India's ambitions to expand use of gas in industries, households and vehicles. Rates, while volatile, may stay strong this decade as developed nations with higher purchasing power embrace gas as the transition fuel.
The government may soon raise prices of natural gas produced by state-owned ONGC and Oil India by as much as 30 per cent, Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan said on Monday.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, has proposed to buy the entire gas production from Sakhalin-I field in Russia and import the same in the form of LNG to India.
Committee of secretaries is working on the formula and it is understood that EAC is also being asked to go through the formula.
State-run Gas Authority of India Ltd on Monday said the government's decision to raise natural gas prices by 12 per cent would not affect its profitability.
Reliance Industries Limited's chairman Mukesh Ambani last week told company shareholders that his firm will supply gas to ADAG plants as and when they are ready and it is subject to the allocation being made by the government.
Indraprastha Gas Ltd, whose initial public offer of 4 crore equity shares opens on Friday, plans to expand supply of compressed natural gas to automobiles in Delhi's adjoining cities like Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad.
India on Tuesday ruled out importing natural gas from Iran through an onland pipeline.
The complaint states that journalists blocked his way at the guest house, the source said without elaborating.
Citing the May, 2010, Supreme Court ruling that upheld the government's right to frame gas utilisation policy, the ministry last week wrote to Reliance directing it to first supply natural gas from its KG-D6 fields to priority sectors like fertiliser and power, official sources said.
Reliance Industries will invest $1.7 billion in a project in the United States for extracting gas from shale, a sedimentary rock, in joint venture with Atlas Energy Inc.
Reliance Industries Ltd has found new natural gas reserves in Krishna Godavari basin D6 block off the east coast, the company's minority partner Niko Resources has said.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh allowed ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, to invest $167.84 million in taking 8.35 per cent stake in the pipeline.
An uncontrolled flow of gas started from the Well G-1-9 in Bay of Bengal around August 30.
'When so many young Baloch men and women are willingly volunteering as fighters and even suicide bombers.'
The agreement, which will be reviewed at the end of five years, will boost profitability of the steel firms who had been buying expensive LNG or naphtha to meet feedstock shortage at their plants, a senior official said. The ministry of petroleum and natural gas had last week asked Reliance to sell natural gas to steel firms like Essar, Ispat and Vikarm Ispat to help the nation's most prolific gas field to produce at optimum level.
Veerappa Moily's allegation that an import lobby was against an increase in gas prices has found no takers among sectoral experts.
iPhone maker Apple has met its replenishment target for freshwater withdrawals for corporate operations in India in 2023, the company said in its environmental progress report released on Wednesday. Globally, Apple has set a goal to replenish 100 per cent of corporate freshwater withdrawals in high-stress locations by 2030.
The growth rate in the production of eight key sectors slowed down to a 20-month low of 0.1 per cent in October on account of contraction in the output of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, and cement, according to the official data released on Wednesday. In October last year, these sectors expanded by 8.7 per cent. In September this year, the core sectors' output growth stood at 7.8 per cent.
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.
Reliance currently holds 90 per cent interest in KG-D6.
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 report, by DeGoyler and MacNaughton, has put a question mark on the future production from the five ONGC discoveries.
Clean air needs action all year round; and that it will work only if we act jointly and at scale, asserts Sunita Narain.
Power plants, involving investments of Rs 100,000 crore, facing closure.
IGL had this month raised compressed natural gas (CNG) prices in the national capital by Rs 1.25 per kilogram to Rs 29 per kg and piped cooking gas to Rs 26 per cubic meter, as it bought more of imported LNG to meet the rising demand.
