After grappling with the issue for two years, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had on November 21 ordered that the margin to be charged, over and above the gas sale price, should be fixed between the seller and buyers in all sectors other than urea and LPG.
IOC and other oil firms have been paying LPG consumers in 54 districts up to Rs 500 to help them buy a 14.2-kg cooking gas refill at market price, which is more than double of Rs 410 per bottle rate in Delhi.
As the government began consultations with stakeholders on raising gas prices, gas producers and consumers met a committee of secretaries separately with their pleas on the issue.
RIL had drawn 58.67 bcm from the wells up to March 31, 2015.
Delhi, reeling under high temperatures and an acute electricity shortage, will get additional gas supplies from the National Thermal Power Corporation and Dabhol to increase power generation and help meet demand in the national capital.
In a first, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met the secretaries of all the government departments collectively and asked them to directly get in touch with him to resolve issues and expedite decision-making.
They will be remanded to 11 days judicial custody.
Scandal is a result of callous administrative approach.
The government has slapped an additional penalty of $792 million on Reliance Industries for producing less than targeted natural gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 block.
Execs of RIL, Essar, Cairn India, Jubilant Energy, ADAG detained.
The list includes CAG's request dated July 2, 2012 for information on award of contract for laying of a 1,395-km pipeline by Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd for shipping KG-D6 gas from east coast to the west.
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.
In the January, 2013 Cabinet note on revision of prices of all domestically produced natural gas, the ministry had proposed immediate implementation of the formula suggested by a panel, headed by Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan, for all producers except in cases where the current rate is valid for a certain period.
The Department of Disinvestment, which is looking at mopping up Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) from the sale of shares in public sector units this fiscal, has raised about Rs 1,325 crore (Rs 13.25 billion) so far.
Sources said the Cabinet had in December last year stipulated that the new gas rate will apply to all producers excepting eastern offshore KG-D6 block where the contractor, which is fighting government against levying penalties for output shortfall, will have to give bank guarantees equivalent to the incremental revenue it would get from the new rates.
They also voiced concerns over a double penalty being sought to be imposed on them for KG-D6 fields output not matching targets.
In a move that will give cooking gas consumers more choice, state oil marketing companies have started selling mini 5-kg LPG cylinders at subsidised rates.
The cost of CNG, which will be reduced by up to Rs 15 per kg in the next few days following a rejig in natural gas allocation, will go up by Rs 10.6 a kg in April, when domestic gas prices almost double.
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has suggested pricking the ballooning oil bill with everything from a street theatre campaign encouraging lower fuel use, to shutting fuel stations, to increasing imports from Iran.
The previous United Progressive Alliance government had last year approved pricing of all forms of domestically produced gas at according to a formula suggested by a panel headed by C Rangarajan.
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State-owned oil firms are likely to announce reduction in rates, made possible because of softening in international oil rates, this evening, government and industry sources said.
The FinMin will pay Rs 5,324 crore (Rs 53.24 billion) for Jan-March.
Former Australian judge Michael McHugh, who was appointed by Supreme Court to adjudicate on Reliance Industries' KG-D6 dispute, had slammed the government interpretation of his statements before quitting the tribunal.
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While the Cabinet has approved doubling of gas price from April 1 next year, Oil Ministry is proposing that old rates of $4.2 per million British thermal unit apply to gas from D1/D3 and MA fields in eastern offshore KG-D6 block till it proved that RIL had proved less than targets only because of geological factors.
The ministry is preparing a draft note for consideration of the CCPA on pricing of diesel, kerosene and LPG, official sources said.
Pradhan said a National Data Repository which will store information on all sedimentary basins of the country is being pursued on top priority.
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.
Reliance Industries would repair a third of the wells shut at its main gas field in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block to boost output in the first quarter of 2014.
Increase in first half of FY14 comes despite a fall in average crude prices; weak rupee helps.
RIL produced a total of 13.58 mmscmd of gas from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields and MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in Bay of Bengal in the first week of February, which rose to 13.63 mmscmd in the following week.
India has already pipped Japan as the world's third-largest oil consumer.
RIL has more than half a dozen undeveloped discoveries.
Amidst a storm over proposal to shut petrol pumps during night to taper fuel demand, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily on Monday said the government had not made any such proposal and the idea had come from public.
RIL, which has faced numerous delays in getting approvals and shifting goal-posts, said the country did not have a stable policy regime and this was responsible for exit of global energy giants like Royal Dutch Shell, BHP Biliton of Australia, Statoil of Norway and Brazil's Petrobras.
Congress stalwart Murli Deora passed away on Monday morning after battling a prolonged illness. He was a politician who shared rapport across the political and corporate spectrum.
Diesel makes up nearly half of fuel demand in Asia's No 3 economy.
ONGC and RIL bill their consumers like fertiliser plants and power stations in US dollar.
Lack of clarity on the overhaul of the subsidy-sharing mechanism by upstream companies.
'Our thrust would be on basic facilities first like sanitation'.
An important document was found lying on a photo-copier machine.
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