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The Union Cabinet is likely to soon consider imposing caps or a ceiling on price for majority of natural gas produced in the country to keep input costs for users ranging from CNG to fertilizer companies in check, sources said. The government bi-annually fixes prices of locally produced natural gas -- which is converted into CNG for use in automobiles, piped to household kitchens for cooking and used to generate electricity and make fertilisers. Two different formulas govern rates paid for gas produced from legacy or old fields of national oil companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), and that for newer fields lying in difficult to tap areas such as deepsea. The global spurt in energy prices post Russia's invasion of Ukraine have led to rates of locally produced gas climbing to record levels - USD 8.57 per million British thermal unit for gas from legacy or old fields and USD 12.46 per mmBtu for gas from difficult fields. These rates are due to
Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner bp plc have re-launched an auction for sale of natural gas from their eastern offshore KG-D6 block after incorporating the government's new marketing rules to give CNG-selling city gas companies first priority over supplies. Reliance and its partner BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd (BPEAL) will sell 6 million standard cubic meters per day of gas in an e-auction planned for April 3, a tender notice said. The price is indexed to the global LNG marker, JKM but will be subject to the government-notified ceiling price. The partners had originally planned the auction in January but days before that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, on January 13, published new rules for the sale and resale of gas produced from discoveries in deep sea, ultra-deep water and high-pressure-high temperature areas. This led to the auction being suspended and is now being re-launched after incorporating changes. Gas produced from wells drilled below seabed is used to .
Billionaire Reliance Industries Ltd and UK supermajor BP are nearing start of production from their giant MJ deep-water project in the KG-D6 block, which will significantly boost gas output from the prized east coast asset, a top official said. The MJ field will come on stream this quarter, said Sashi Mukundan, Regional President and Head of Country, India, BP Group, at India Energy Week here. Reliance and BP are spending about USD 5 billion on further developing KG-D6 through three different projects, aimed at rejuvenating gas production from the offshore asset. While the first two developments -- R-cluster and Satellite Cluster -- have started gas production, MJ is now nearing completion. The two fields are currently producing around 20 million standard cubic meters per day of gas and MJ would help raise the output to 30 mmscmd, meeting up to 15 per cent of India's gas demand. "MJ, the third of three developments, is expected to come on stream this quarter. Together, R-Series, ..
Global energy giant Shell said Thursday that its annual profits doubled to a record high last year as oil and natural gas prices soared after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. London-based Shell Plc posted adjusted earnings of USD 39.9 billion for 2022 in its financial results for the final three months of the year. Adjusted earnings in the fourth quarter, which exclude one-time items and fluctuations in the value of inventories, rose to USD 9.8 billion. Shell is the latest oil company to report bumper profits, even as the fossil fuel industry faces increasing pressure to cut climate-changing carbon emissions. US-based Exxon Mobil also posted record annual profits days earlier, while UK rival BP and France's TotalEnergies posted huge quarterly profits last year. The results demonstrate Shell's capacity to deliver vital energy to our customers in a volatile world," new CEO Wael Sawan said in a statement. It's the first earnings report presented by Sawan since he took over as chief ...
State gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd on Monday reported 90 per cent drop in December quarter net profit after it suffered losses in petrochemical and natural gas marketing business. Consolidated net profit of Rs 397.59 crore in October-December 2022 is compared with Rs 3,800.09 crore earning in the same period a year back, according to the company's stock exchange filing. The nation's largest gas trading and transportation company booked Rs 349 crore loss in petrochemical business after it had to cut run rate due to curtailment in supply of cheaper domestic gas. Natural gas marketing division too incurred a loss while the pre-tax profitability of the core transmission business halved. Revenue from operations rose to Rs 35,939.96 crore in October-December 2022 from Rs 26,175.60 crore a year ago.