Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL) has fired a salvo at the government expressing displeasure over the pricing mechanism for domestic natural gas.

In its annual report, the company said, “In RIL’s view, the methodology used for valuation of gas under these guidelines, does not reflect true arms- length market price…as required under the production sharing contract (PSC) signed with the government.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in its latest report, stated the financials of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) would be adversely affected if the government accepts a third-party report, effectively bringing to an end the continuity of the company's reservoir, adjacent to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation fields in the Krishna-Godawari basin.

The CAG report also said the total financial impact of excess cost recovery allowed by the government during 2012-14 - and pointed out by the CAG - was about Rs 9,307 crore.

Reliance Industries (RIL) has blamed government-owned ONGC for ‘not pointing out’ more than a decade back the underground contiguity of their adjacent deepwater blocks in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin. RIL has argued that the 2003 report, cited by ONGC before the AP Shah panel, was preliminary in nature and carried out just to meet regulatory norms and that it did not offer any scope for joint development of the blocks at that time.

Shares of Reliance Industries on Monday rose by nearly 3% after the company reported a bigger-than-expected 18% jump in June quarter profit.

After a positive opening, shares of the company went up further by 2.61% to Rs 1,039 on BSE.

Reliance Industries has done it again. After reporting a seven-year high gross refining margin (GRM) of $11.5 a barrel in the December 2015 quarter, the company topped this metric in the June 2016 quarter (Q1) as well.

Reliance Industries’ (RIL) GRMs stood at $11.5 a barrel in Q1 and were much ahead of Street expectations of $9-10 a barrel. This metric stood at $10.4 a barrel in the year-ago quarter, and at $10.8 a barrel in March 2016 quarter.

Reliance Industries (RIL) is likely to register over 25 per cent rise in consolidated net profit figures for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. However, gross refining margins (GRM) of the oil company may fall marginally on account of lower product cracks.

According to KR Choksey Shares & Securities, the brokerage house may register net profit growth of 27 per cent on year-on-year basis to Rs 7,786.6 against Rs 6,137 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. For the quarter ended March 31, 2016 the company reported net profit of Rs 7,398 crore, up 15.94 per cent, against Rs 6381 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Ahead of the first quarter results of Reliance Industries, that is due on Friday, top brokerages and analysts have predicted an average rise in net profits of 5.5 per cent over the like period of last year, with the maximum jump seen at 10 per cent.

Sequentially, though, all the 16 such forecasts by firms like Citi, HSBC, Nomora, JP Morgan and Kotak, see a fall ranging between 5.5 per cent and 15.5 per cent (for the first quarter of this financial year over the last quarter of the previous year. The average is 11.3 per cent.

NEW DELHI: The government may hold on to its shares in blue chips such as ITC and L&T despite the Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) seeking bids from merchant bankers to advise the agency on its holdings that span across sectors.

While several experts have suggested that SUUTI, which is wholly owned by the government, sell some of the marquee stocks instead of divesting stake in PSUs to raise money, a source in the government said that rushing in with the sale may not be prudent.

Government has invited merchant bankers to help it sell minority stakes in 51 companies, including RIL, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and L&T, and is looking at exiting them within three years.

The Specified Undertaking of UTI (SUUTI) has investments in these 51 listed as well as unlisted companies, like Hindustan Unilever, ITC Ltd, Jaiprakash Associates and a host of Tata Group firms.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has got approval from the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) to drill eight additional exploratory wells in Tamil Nadu. The company plans to invest around Rs 800 crore to drill these new wells.

An Order, signed by Lalit Bokolia, additional director, MoEF, on June 30 , 2016 stated that the Ministry has given environmental clearance to the project under the provisions. The Ministry also listed several conditions in the Order.

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