Private explorer Reliance Industries (RIL) is targeting to start production of coal bed methane (CBM) from its Sohagpur (West) block in Madhya Pradesh during April-June FY17. This would mark the entry of the Mukesh Ambani firm into drilling gas from coal seams, a business that is still lagging behind in the country.

“RIL plans to put on stream the first set of wells between April 8 and April 14,” sources privy to the development told FE. Unlike conventional natural gas, CBM production is tricky and would take about six to eight weeks for the fuel to hit the customer, the source added.

Government has extended by three months the tenure of A P Shah Committee looking into the dispute over natural gas migrating from state-owned ONGC's idle blocks in KG basin to neighbouring fields of Reliance Industries.

The committee has been asked to submit by July 31 its report on "acts of omission and commission" as well as compensation to ONGC, an oil ministry official said.

The government's move to free gas pricing for undeveloped gas fields in difficult areas will not apply to Reliance Industries' KG-D6 finds unless the Mukesh Ambani firm withdraws arbitration challenging the government's authority to decide rates.

The Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had Thursday decided that the marketing freedom subject to a cap based on alternative fuel will not be applicable to discoveries that are under litigation or arbitration.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is set to miss its deadline for re-opening all 1,400 retail fuel outlets by March-end. Till December, the company had 750 operational retail outlets, up from 320 such outlets in April last year.

"We are opening all our outlets one by one. In the next few months, we would be opening the other closed outlets. A lot of infrastructure details have to be looked into before re-opening of these outlets," said a company official.

In a boost to firms like ONGC and Reliance Industries, the government plans to raise natural gas price by about 60% for their undeveloped gas discoveries in difficult areas.

While domestically-produced gas is currently priced at an average of rates in gas-surplus countries like the US, Canada and Russia, for deep-sea discoveries yet to be developed, the government plans to price them at an average cost of alternative fuels -- naphtha and fuel oil as well as imported LNG.

With the government allowing Indian companies to avail themselves of investment allowance by one more year in the Budget announced on Monday, companies like Reliance Industries, the Adani Group and Tata Steel, which are currently in investment mode, will be the biggest beneficiary of 15% allowance. It will come into effect with retrospective effect from April 1, 2015.

The Income Tax Act specifies that manufacturing companies can avail themselves of the investment allowance at the rate of 15% on investments made in new assets such as plant and machinery exceeding Rs 25 crore so long as the acquisition and installation of the asset is undertaken in the same year. The Bill proposes to do away with the requirement that the asset should be acquired and installed in the same year.

Reliance Industries is nearing the completion of its largest ever capital expenditure program of $46 billion by FY17, paving the way for a multi-year cycle of strong free cash flow generation averaging US$5 billion, which will double its market capitalisation to $100 billion (Rs 6.8 trillion), Morgan Stanley has said. The free cash flow implies an over 11% yield and is the highest among large cap global oil & gas peers under its coverage, it said.

Morgan Stanley said its analysis of the stock price's history over the last 15 years suggests that RIL has typically outperformed once it starts generating free cash flow after its capex mode and a similar cycle is now likely to play out. “We chalk out a potential roadmap for the stock to double to reach market cap of US$100 billion (Rs 6.8 trillion),” said the report dated March 1.

Reliance Industries has emerged as the top company in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), having spend over Rs 760 crore, followed by state-owned ONGC and IT giant Infosys, Parliament was informed today.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley said a total of 460 listed firms have so far disclosed spending Rs 6,337.36 crore in 2014-15. This included 51 PSUs that spent Rs 2,386.60 crore.

NEW DELHI: ONGC has alleged that RIL in a "well-planned and deliberate strategy" produced about $1.4 billion worth of its gas over past six years and demanded that the Mukesh Ambani firm pay full compensation with 18 per cent interest.

Reliance Industries had in 2001 and again in 2007 acquired seismic data to study hydrocarbon reservoir lying several hundred meters below the sea-bed not just in its Bay of Bengal KG-D6 block but also of neighbouring blocks of ONGC without the knowledge of the state-owned firm, it alleged.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd , owner of the world's biggest refining complex, is preparing to lift oil from Iran next month after a gap of about five years, said an industry source with knowledge of talks between the two.

The conglomerate, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, stopped Iranian oil imports in 2010 because it was worried that the threat of U.S. sanctions on companies doing business with the Islamic republic would complicate its efforts to boost market share for its fuels in the United States.

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