NTPC willing to buy gas from Reliance Industries

September 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - State-owned power utility NTPC has asked the power ministry to ascertain whether the marketing margin levied by Reliance Industries (RIL) on gas from the Krishna Godavari basin was valid. In a Sep 23 letter to the power ministry, NTPC executive director T.K.

September 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - State-run power utility NTPC may sign an agreement to buy natural gas from Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries (RIL) at the government-approved rate of $4.20 per unit for plants other than Kawas and Gandhar, Power Secretary H.S. Brahma said Thursday.

September 4th, 2009 MUMBAI - State-run power utility NTPC Friday said it was "committed to drawing the allocated gas" from the Krishna-Godavari hydrocarbon basin for projects in the national capital region that includes Delhi, even though it was fighting a legal battle with the contractor, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). "NTPC is committed to drawing the allocated gas for its national capital region gas-based power stations at Anta, Dadri and Faridabad, without prejudice to its rights and contentions in the ongoing suit between NTPC and RIL," said the company in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

September 2nd, 2009 NOIDA - State-run power utility NTPC will not file a separate plea in the ongoing legal dispute between Reliance Industries and Reliance Natural Resources since the government has already moved an application to protect its own and the navratna firm's interests, a senior government official said Wednesday. "Since the petroleum ministry has come out in support of NTPC, there is no need for NTPC to go to the Supreme Court," Power Secretary H.S.

August 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The ministerial panel set up to decide on the government's stand on the Krishna-Godavari gas row, will meet again Thursday after an informal round of talks here Wednesday. The high-level panel, consisting of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Law Minister Veerappa Moily and Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, met "informally", according to sources.

August 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Petroleum Ministry on Wednesday assured its support to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in the legal battle to get natural gas from Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) as per the rates decided in 2004. The ministry said it would not allow the interest of the NTPC to be compromised.

August 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been urged to order a probe into the antecedents of a former oil ministry official who scrutinised the price of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin agreed between the companies led by the two Ambani brothers. Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha member Virendra Bhatia, in his letter to the prime minister, said Sunjoy Joshi, who handled the contentious decision in 2006 as a joint secretary in the oil ministry, subsequently joined an organisation promoted by Reliance Industries.

July 28th, 2009 MUMBAI - Reliance Natural Resources chairman Anil Ambani on Tuesday blamed the Petroleum Ministry of maintaining a biased approach in the legal dispute with brother Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries over the issue of the price of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin. Anil, while addressing shareholders of the company, stated that the Government would not lose a single rupee even if the gas from the fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast were to be supplied to his company at the originally contracted price of 2.34 dollars per unit.

July 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The central government Monday said it has not issued any directive to the state-run power major NTPC, formerly National Thermal Power Corp, to sign a gas purchase deal with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). Government has not issued any instruction to NTPC for signing of gas purchase deal with RIL, Minister of State for Power Bharatsinh Solanki said in a written reply tabled in Rajya Sabha.

June 24th, 2009 MUMBAI - Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL), an Anil Ambani group company, has written two letters to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries seeking to settle the dispute over pricing of gas from the latter's Krishna Godavari finds. "We have written two letters to Reliance Industries, asking them to sit across the table to crash out the three-four relevant clauses so that they can be put in the agreement," RNRL counsel Mukul Rohatgi told a news channel Wednesday.

March 2nd, 2009 MUMBAI - In one of the largest merger deals in India, Reliance Petroleum will merge with its parent and the country's biggest company, Reliance Industries, in what the promoters say will create better synergies for them in the hydrocarbons space. The board of the two companies met here Monday to unanimously approve the merger in the ratio of one share of Reliance Industries for every 16 shares of Reliance Petroleum.

January 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bombay High Court Friday lifted its interim ban on the sale of natural gas by Reliance Industries from the Krishna-Godavari basin till final orders March 15, and said the company can retail it at $4.20 per unit. The Mukesh Ambani-led group can sell the gas from the fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast based on the criteria set by an empowered group of ministers, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, and accepted by the government, the court ruled.

January 18th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Anil Ambani group Monday told the Bombay High Court that allowing Reliance Industries to charge a higher tariff for gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin would mean a Rs.250-billion scam. The group, which is fighting a bitter legal battle with the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries over gas from the fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast, said state-run utility NTPC must not be asked to pay more than the agreed price of $2.34 per unit.

January 15th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Bombay High Court is expected to decide next week whether Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries can assume sale of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin, off the Andhra Pradesh coast. The court had imposed a stay on the sale of natural gas from the fields after two cases were filed against Reliance Industries over the sale price and qualtity of fuel - one by the Anil Ambani Group and the other by state-run power utility National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

January 13th, 2009 MUMBAI - Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Wednesday denied any pact with Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) for the sale of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin off the Andhra Pradesh coast. Representing Reliance Industries, senior counsel Harish Salve told the Bombay High Court that a memorandum of understanding was entered into with Reliance Energy, another company in the Anil Ambani group, for the Dadri power project in Uttar Pradesh.