The Rangarajan committee report was facing flak from the finance, power and fertiliser ministries over its recommendations on pricing

The fate of the Rangarajan Committee's recommendations is hanging in the balance after the postponement of a meeting of empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on natural gas. Not only does there appear to be no meeting ground on the issue of a pricing formula proposed by the committee, the petroleum ministry wants another committee headed by Vijay Kelkar to look into the other major recommendation of moving to the revenue sharing model in exploration and production.

New Delhi: Reliance Industries (RIL) has struck a gas pool in the first exploration well dug in more than five years in its showcase Andhra offshore field that has seen production dropping to less

As per the contract, the service partner KRPEL will bring the investment and expertise to rejuvenate the depleted fields of the ONGC
ONGC

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) chairman and managing director Sudhir Vasudeva said that the state-run enterprise intends to set up its own power plants, not just gas-based but also power plants based on nuclear, wind and other unconventional energy sources.

The energy ministry has undertaken 13 projects for Tk 4000 crore to boost the country's gas exploration and the transmission network to meet huge demand of gas in the industrial sector.

India is set to join a select group of countries having a specialised agency mapping its shale gas potential. A proposal to this effect has already been worked out by the oil ministry. The proposed agency will fall under the central government. It will have the mandate to map the presence of shale gas across various states in the Gangetic plain, Assam, Rajasthan and many coastal areas.

The agency will conduct studies on the basis of geological, geophysical and geochemical aspects of shale gas exploration, micro-seismic imaging, drilling, completion and production technologies and environmental hazards in shale gas exploitation.

In a move that could give a fillip to India's unconventional gas production, the ministry of environment and forests has given the phase-III clearance for Essar Oil's Raniganj block in West Bengal. The company will now be able to drill up to 650 wells, compared with the current 135.

The clearances would help Essar Oil invest another Rs 2,500 crore to increase the number of drilled wells to 300 by the end of this year and also rise production to three million standard cubic metres of gas per day (scmd), up from around 60,000 scmd.

Scrips of RIL, ONGC down

The Finance Minister's announcement for the oil and gas companies did not cheer key players in the industry.

Industry players gave a thumbs down to FM's proposal to review the oil and gas exploration policy and move from profit sharing to revenue sharing contracts. "The proposal to the move from profit sharing model to revenue sharing model marks substantial increase in risk profile for exploration and production companies. From an overall perspective, Budget 2013 has a negative bias for oil and gas industry," said Nabin Ballodia, Partner-Tax, KPMG India.

The Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has held back approvals for work programme (WP) and budget for KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) block for 2012-13 and 2013-14, seeking an explanation on various iss

The Arctic needs to be better protected from a rush for natural resources as melting ice makes mineral and energy exploration easier, the United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP) said.

After slamming the door on developing shale gas over environmental concerns, France has discovered there could be at least five years worth of another cheap-to-produce gas in the former coal mining