Reliance Industries’ (RIL) partner in oil and gas exploration business, UK’s BP in an Upstream Investor Day conference held at Sunbury, UK on December 3, 2012 said that its India assets have a significant growth potential and future optionality. Commenting on the recent fall in production Bob Dudley, BP’s group CEO, said that the decline in production has really followed what we said.
In a Flash Note on RIL, Edelweiss pointed out that BP has opined that the Indian government’s decision-making process is picking up. Meanwhile, CNBC reported oil ministry sources saying that the CAG would begin audit on KG-D6 shortly and that the company’s issues over CAG have been resolved. Reliance agreeing to CAG’s terms could have been prompted after a strongly worded letter by the latter to the Oil Ministry asking it to not approve any further investments by the company in KG-D6 basin.
On the issue of price control, BP said that it had conveyed to the Oil Ministry that India was in fact encouraging BP’s LNG exports from Australia. In an assuring tone, BP said that “the message is getting through, so stay tuned”.
The Oil Ministry had earlier withdrawn a note it had circulated to the members of a ministerial panel opposing a hike in the price of gas produced by RIL. The ministry, however, said that this was being done as the Rangarajan Committee was examining pricing of the fuel.
The Oil Ministry under erstwhile minister Jaipal Reddy moved a note on October 10 to the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) opposing a hike in the price of KG-D6 gas before April 2014. Social activist turned politician Arvind Kejriwal had cited this as one of the reasons for Jaipal Reddy’s removal from the ministry.