Supreme Court rejects Reliance Natural Resources plea on hearing

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to take up a gas dispute between RIL and RNRL for final hearing on Sep 1, rejecting the latter's plea for expeditious hearings.The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to take up a gas dispute between Reliance Industries (RIL) and Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) for final hearing on September 1, rejecting the plea of Anil Ambani Group company for expeditious proceedings. RNRL on Wednesday had served notices to the oil ministry and RIL in this regard and argued that the gas supply dispute between RIL and RNRL concerns power projects of national importance, representing a capacity of 12,000 mw power and an investment of over Rs 50,000 crore.

A bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan said it would decide on the date of final hearing on September 1, when it would consider various petitions related to the dispute. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear cross-appeals by both Ambani group firms on September 1, as also a petition by the Petroleum Ministry against a Bombay High Court order that asked RIL to supply gas to RNRL at $2.34 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) against the officially prescribed $4.2 per mmbtu.

The RNRL prayer came up for mentioning and the company's counsel Mukul Rohtagi requested that final hearing be taken up on September 1, as the entire Bombay High Court record was before the apex court and nothing was left to be filed.

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High Court asks Ambanis to frame new gas pact

The Bombay High Court on Monday ordered Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s largest company, to sell natural gas to brother Anil Ambani’s Reliance Natural Resources Ltd at a price that is 44% lower than the price proposed by the government earlier.

The order could significantly impact the contours of the natural gas economy in the country. RIL has been asked to supply natural gas to RNRL for 17 years at $2.34 per million British thermal units. RNRL, however, cannot trade the gas but can use it as raw material in its power projects. Natural gas accounts for about 18% of the total energy-mix of the Indian economy.

An RIL spokesperson said: “The full text of the judgment of the honourable High Court has been received by us and is being reviewed by us.

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Reliance Industries Q4 net dips 9 percent to rupees 3,546 crore

Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s largest private company by market capitalisation, on Thursday reported a 9.4% drop in its quarterly net profit, on falling fuel demand and thinning crude processing margins.

The company’s net profit for Q4 of FY09 stood at Rs 3,546 crore, compared to Rs 3,912 crore in Q4 of 2007-08 . The profits were aided by a one-time gain of Rs 993 crore in the quarter from interest on cash balance and an insurance claim of Rs 60 crore.

Reliance made a one-time provision of Rs 370 crore towards estimated claims on subsidiaries, it said, without elaborating. Before providing for the claims, profits stood at Rs 3,874 crore. Sales for the quarter dipped 24.9% to Rs 29,073 crore from 38,697 crore.

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Reliance Industries Limited begins gas production from Krishna Godavari -D6

Finally,the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries has begun gas production from Dhirubhai 1 and 3 discoveries in the KG-D6 block,amidst reports that the company may spend an additional $5.9 billion on developing fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

At peak production of oil & gas, the KG-D6 facility would produce over 550,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company had planned to start gas production from September last year and later at the beginning of this year.

As reported by FE on March 2,the company aims at gas production of 80 million standard cubic meters a day(mmscmd) by December-end instead of an original target of 2011.

An RIL release said the initial production of gas from the Dhirubhai 1 and 3 will be sold to existing fertiliser and power companies, which will substantially cut the government’s subsidy burden.

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Value from family differences

It was a terse note on June 18, 2005 from Kokilaben D Ambani that many thought would put an end to a public spat between her two sons-Mukesh and Anil Ambani-over ownership of the Reliance empire. Three years later, the spat continues, the latest over Anil's plans for a stake sale in his flagship Reliance Communications (RComm) to South Africa's MTN. This time, no one's stepping in, not even the matriarch. Paradoxically, after the split, both sides of the Reliance empire have grown manifold in value under the two brothers. Is that why no one's complaining?

In her 2005 statement, Kokilaben Ambani said, "With the blessings of Srinathji, I have today amicably resolved the issues between my two sons keeping in mind the proud legacy of my husband. I am confident that Mukesh and Anil will uphold the values of their father and work towards protecting and enhancing value of over 3 million shareholders of the Reliance group."

Mukesh, who got Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and the erstwhile Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd, and Anil, who took control of what was then Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital, did indeed protect and enhance shareholders' interest. They added new businesses and pumped in much investment and vigour into existing ones.

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Big-ticket bids to hot up Coal-To-Liquid project

Country’s top corporate houses including the Tatas, Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Group, the Jindals along with the Adani Group and others will now have to compete and out bid each other to secure rights for a cluster of coal blocks—with estimated reserves of about 1.5 billion tonne—for their proposed $8 billion coal-to-liquid (CTL) project in India.

With the soaring cost of crude oil, currently close to $130 a barrel, there has been a huge rush of proposals from big corporate houses for coal block for setting up a coal-to-liquid project. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as the minister in-charge of coal, has approved setting up of one coal-to-liquid (CTL) project in the country. Singh has directed the ministry of coal to invite fresh expression of interests (EOIs) for allotment of identified coal blocks for setting up a CTL project.

As per the ministry of coal estimates, coal reserves of about 1 to 1.5 billion tonne are required to produce 3.5 million tonne oil & oil products. The block/cluster of these coal blocks should enable mining operations of 28-31 million tonne run-of-mine coal per annum for 30 years. The estimated investment for setting up such a project is in the range of $6 billion to $8 billion.

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