Sri Lanka, Reliance Industries in oil exploration talks

October 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has agreed to pay under protest a marketing margin to Reliance Industries for the gas supplied from the Krishna-Godavari basin, over and above the price formulae of the government. In a letter to the oil ministry, the group has queried if the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries was entitled to charge the margin, as neither the company has undertaken such an exercise nor has the government's price formulae enabled such a provision.

October 7th, 2009 MUMBAI - The board of Reliance Industries, India's largest private company, Wednesday recommended a dividend of Rs.13 per share and a bonus issue of one new share for each existing one. The announcement came after the closing bell for Indian equities markets, where the company's scrip, with a paid up value of Rs.10, had ended at Rs.2,099 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), down 1.57 percent or Rs.33.45 over the previous close.

October 3rd, 2009 BARASAT - Reliance Retail, part of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, is looking at reviving its West Bengal projects "in a major way", a top official said here Saturday. "We are currently working on how best we can come back to the state in a major way.

September 28th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Anil Ambani group has called the marketing margin for the gas produced by Reliance Industries from the Krishna-Godavari basin illegal and asked the oil ministry to prevent the company from suspending supplies as threatened. In a letter to Petroleum Secretary R.S.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's official auditor has said that Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries is reluctant to share information about its books of accounts for an audit of the Krishna-Godavari gas fields, and has called for clarity on the issue of access. In a letter to the petroleum ministry dated Aug 26, Principal Director of Audit K.R.

August 20th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group Thursday accused the petroleum ministry of failing to attract foreign investment in the auctions for oil and natural gas exploration blocks in the country because of its flip-flop, partisan and non-transparent policies. The auctions under a new exploration policy conducted over the past three years unfortunately reveal the absolute failure of the oil ministry to attract any global capital inflow into the country's upstream hydrocarbons sector, the group charged.

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 2nd, 2009 KOCHI - It will take at least 100 days to confirm whether there is hydrocarbon presence off Kochi coast, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) chairman R.S. Sharma has Sunday.

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.

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.

April 18th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd has surrendered the export-oriented unit (EOU) status of its refinery in Gujarat's Jamnagar to sell fuel in the domestic market. 'The refinery will now operate as a non-EOU refinery to cater to increasing demand of petroleum products in the country,' the company said in a statement.

March 2nd, 2009 MUMBAI - In one of India's largest amalgamation deals, Reliance Petroleum will merge with its parent and the country's biggest private company Reliance Industries in what the promoters say would create better synergies in the hydrocarbons space. The boards 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.

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.

February 28th, 2009 MUMBAI - The $34.5-billion Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector company, Friday announced that it will consider a proposal next week to merge another group company into itself to bring in operational efficiency. The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries and its oil refining and export-oriented subsidiary Reliance Petroleum, have both informed the stock exchanges of their boards' agenda to consider the merger.

February 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Natural gas supplies from the Krishna-Godavari basin, off the Andhra Pradesh coast and awarded to Reliance Industries, will start from April with 40 million metric standard cubic metres per day, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said Wednesday. Addressing the members of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to the oil ministry, Deora said the production will significantly address the country's demand for fuel, especially for domestic and transport sectors.