Reliance Industries plans to sell gas to retail consumers in the US and will use its newly-minted partnership with Atlas Energy to try and build a brand name in the intensely competitive market.

Mukesh Ambani led RIL, which bought 40% in Atlas Energy some weeks ago, plans to use the pipeline infrastructure that Atlas already has to supply through its own network of gas stations in the world’s biggest energy market. An RIL spokesperson declined comment on the development.

A person close to the development said RIL’s US venture, a subsidiary of RIL Netherlands, will transport gas using the network. The company initially plans to supply to consumers in New York, Virginia among others.

Having acquired the stake in the shale gas fields, RIL along with its joint venture partner Atlas Energy will soon begin work on the development of the field to start producing gas. As opposed to many crude oil and gas acreages, the shale gas fields are all proven assets (where time and money are not wasted on exploration) and RIL can get into the development stage right away.

RIL already exports a bulk of its refined petroleum products, primarily gasoline, to the US markets but is not in the retail market.

But RIL officials are gung ho about the overseas operations. The firm is looking at increased revenues from its offshore assets in the coming years and is planning to invest a bulk of its capex in these markets in the years to come, an RIL official, who did not wish to be named, said.

“We are looking at an EBIDTA of at least 35% of our revenues from global operations,” he said.

Although gas markets are currently soft with demand for natural gas seeing a huge fall after the recession, it is expected to pick up in the medium term.

RIL may also soon have some more acreages of shale gas that Atlas is expected to close on shortly. As per the understanding, RIL will get 40% of the share in every new shale gas asset. Interestingly, apart from an assured share, the company also has an understanding that it would acquire the future stake at a price not higher than $8,000 per acre. It acquired its stake in Atlas for $1.7 billion, or $14,000 per acre.

Shale gas is like natural gas that is trapped within marine sedimentary rock layers and is considered to be a promising new source of hydrocarbons. The net potential of the Marcellus fields in Pennsylvania is approximately 13.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent (tcfe) of natural gas, with RIL having a claim of over 5.3 tcfe. RIL’s KGD6 gas field on India’s eastern coast has an estimated potential of 11 tcfe.

The best news channel in the business and the most powerful Indian corporate came together in 2008 to launch an initiative – Real Heroes. Rajdeep Sardesai from CNN-IBN in partnership with Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani from Reliance Industries Limited instituted an effort to honor the unsung heroes of our nation. This initiative is all about people like you and me, the common man of India who has done extraordinary things to make our nation proud. ‘Real Heroes’ started in 2008 is into its third year in 2010. This initiative run by Reliance Industries Limited and CNN-IBN is surely going to bring in change by acknowledging the ordinary Indian who has made difference to people’s lives.

This prestigious award salutes the unsung heroes without whom India would not have been a global entity. Every year, the award is given in the categories including education, environment, healthcare, rural development, sports, social welfare, women & child welfare and wildlife conservation. The award panel selects 24 ‘Real Heroes’ across India from four different zones. Talking about the significance of this initiative, Nita Ambani, wife of RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said, “Each one of these achievers has left a huge impact on thousands of men and women and have transformed lives by perseverance, passion for a cause.”

The selection process includes Indian citizens suggesting names for Real Heroes and then the editorial board at IBN18 shortlists and finalises the list of the recipients, the recipient is then felicitated with a trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakhs. The recipient list of 2008 consisted of Sunita Krishnan who bagged the award in women’s welfare category for taking on the trafficking mafia. Nishtha Desai received the award for social work along with other exceptional works.

In 2009, the recipient list included Dr. Rouf M. Malik, K.M Chinnappa, Hemant Patel, Deepak Saha and many more courageous Indians. Speaking on the initiative, Nita Ambani said, “We are proud to be associated with Real Heroes, a movement to honour the men and women who have been working with never ending courage and unflagging dedication to make a better society for their countrymen to live in. We are sure that their inspiring stories will serve as a beacon of inspiration for many others.”

People across diverse age groups like the octogenarian Ram Snehi to 31 year old Ishita Khanna and from all corners of India from Mohd Iqbal of Ladakh to T. Raja from Chennai have been recipients of the Real Heroes award in 2010. Bollywood legend Aamir Khan during one of the award ceremonies of Real Heroes said, “There are very few of us who put aside our own goals and think about others: and this ability to care for other people, their requirements or their needs is really special.”

Independent oil and gas company Atlas Energy Inc said it would buy 42,344 acres in the gas-rich Marcellus shale along with Indian energy giant Reliance Industries, weeks after the two announced a joint venture.

The companies will buy the acreage in Fayette, Washington, Indiana, Westmoreland, Armstrong and Clarion Counties of Pennsylvania at an average price of $4,532 per acre.

Earlier this month, Reliance said it would pay Atlas $1.7 billion, or $14,000 an acre, to buy a 40 percent stake in Atlas’s operations in the Marcellus shale.

The booming Marcellus shale — a gas project which according to some geologists could hold enough natural gas to satisfy U.S. demand for a decade — has been attracting companies’ attention for the last few years.

Following Wednesday’s deal, the Atlas-Reliance joint venture will control about 343,000 Marcellus Shale acres, of which about 206,000 acres are net to Atlas.

Atlas said it would be able to drill over 450 horizontal wells on the latest acquired acreage, adding that it intends to develop a large percentage of the acreage in the next five years.

Source:http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-47890920100422

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries made a fourth oil discovery in the Cambay Basin in Gujarat.

Two hydrocarbon-bearing zones were discovered in a well drilled in exploration block CB-ONN-2003/1, which flowed 300 barrels of oil during testing, the company said in a press statement. The block was awarded under NELP-V round of exploration bidding, the statement added.

“The discovery is significant as this play fairway is expected to open more oil pool areas, leading to better hydrocarbon potential within the block,” it said.

The well, CB10A-F1, was drilled to a total depth of 1,605 metres and flowed at a rate of 300 barrels of oil per day (bopd). The 635-sq km CB-ONN-2003/1 block is located at a distance of about 130 km from Ahmedabad, in Gujarat. The block that covers an area of 635 sq km, is divided into two parts viz., Part A & Part B. RIL, as Operator, holds 100% participating interest (PI) in the block.

“This discovery, named Dhirubhai-47, the fourth oil discovery in the block so far, has been notified to the government and Director-General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons,” the statement said.

“The potential commercial interest of the discovery is being ascertained through more data gathering and analysis,” Reliance Industries said in a statement.

RIL is continuing further exploratory drilling efforts in the block.

For all the Indian students who have ever dreamt of pursuing MBA from the prestigious Stanford School of Business, good news is on its way. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited along with the Stanford Graduate School of Business had announced the creation of Reliance Dhirubhai Fellowship programme in 2008 to support Indian students with financial problems. This year also Stanford School of Business will offer scholarship to Indian nationals under MBS programme.

Under this scholarship programme started by the Reliance Industries Limited, Stanford will award five Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Fellowships every year to offer full financial support to the Indian students. This Reliance Dhirubhai scholarship will also cover expenses including travel, tuition and accommodation. This scholarship includes 100 per cent tuition cover along with all the expenses starting from applying till attending the MBA programme which is approximately $85,000 for a single student and $95,000 for a married student.

The students eligible for applying for Dhirubhai Ambani Scholarship should be citizens of India and are required to sit for a test where the aspirant needs to write a 250 word article on ‘ How do you aspire to shape your country’s future?’ Once the scholarship is awarded to the students for MBA degree, Reliance Industries want the students to return to India within two years of graduating from the Stanford School of Business and work here for the next two years and serve their own country.

Since India is a fast growing economy, good management talent is required and for this, such tie ups will surely help India to grow fast in both national and international market. The finalists are selected on the basis of merit, commitment to develop India and the financial needs. After a good academic performance in a year, the scholarship is automatically renewed for the next year also. The Reliance Dhirubhai Fellows are bound to return to India and work here for minimum two years in public or private sector.
The Stanford Graduate School of Business receives funds from various individuals, corporations and foundations every year with a number of fellowship programmes. Private companies and other organizations offer grants, scholarship and funds to MBA students. If the student is availing of the funds from the scholarship programme, then the Stanford business school does not approve of any kind of educational loans. Some other fellowship programmes offered at the Stanford include Siebel Scholars Programme, GSB Internship Programme, Social Innovation Fellowship and Entrepreneurial Summer Programme. The last date for submitting applications is June 1,2010.

Source:http://news-views.in/reliance-industries-scholarship-to-stanford/

Nita Ambani owned ‘Mumbai Indians’ team beat Rajasthan Royals by 37 runs and booked their seat in the semi-finals of the lucrative Indian Premier League. Since the beginning of Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians has remained the favorite team of season 3 and almost everyone bet on the team as IPL 3 winner. But at the IPL 3 finals on 25th April, 2010, fate favored Chennai Superkings and Mumbai Indians lost the match by 22 runs. For Mumbai Indians, IPL 3 has been a fantastic journey with one of the strongest squad consisting of Sachin Tendulkar, KA Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, SL Malinga and other talented players carrying the team from strength to strength.

D Y Patil stadium was packed to capacity as thousands of cricket fans thronged the place to witness the IPL 3 final between the two strong sides. The finale was thrilling with great shots from the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, though his presence in the team was doubtful due to the injury. The Mumbai Indians played consistently well all through the tournament and Nita Ambani constantly showed her support for the team by being present in almost every match played by the Mumbai Indians. After disappointing everyone in the cricket world with poor performance in both the previous seasons of IPL, this year, the Mumbai team was seen as the toughest and the most enduring side from the very beginning.

Talking about the team performance, one name that cannot be skipped out is that of K.A Pollard who actually led Mumbai Indians to the final of IPL 3. While the hear tearing over why Pollard was not brought to bat earlier continues, his contribution of a whopping 27 runs off 10 balls made it a close call for the Chennai Super Kings during the middle overs of the game.
The owner of Mumbai Indians, Nita Ambani presented the Orange cap to Sachin Tendulkar for scoring maximum runs in the third season of Indian Premier League. The skipper of the runners-up team was also awarded DLF Golden Player of IPL 3.

After the finals, Sachin Tendulkar was quoted as saying, “A couple of important catches cost us. There is a saying that catches win matches. The start in the run-chase also was not up to the mark. We could have accelerated a little bit more. Towards the end, Kieron Pollard came in with a fine effort but it was a bit late. We tried hard to accelerate the run-rate but it was one of those days when things did not click.”

Harbhajan Singh’s superb performance led to the Mumbai Indians victory against Deccan Chargers in a previous game. Harbhajan smashed the bowlers with unbeaten 49 runs and also cracked three wickets by giving away 31 runs. With the spirit intact, Mumbai Indians is expecting to win the next IPL with Sachin Tendulkar’s assurance of playing in the IPL 4.

Source:http://news-views.in/mumbai-indians-almost-there/

State-run power producer NTPC is likely to sign contracts next week to buy an additional 1.51 million cubic meters a day of gas from Reliance Industries at government-approved price of $4.2 per mmBtu.

The additional gas would be used at NTPC’s Anta and Auriya plants in Rajasthan, Dadri unit in Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad plant in Haryana, official sources said.

Since these plants have already signed Gas Sales and Purchase Agreements (GSPA) for volumes totaling 1.81 mmcmd, only side-letters need to be signed for additional gas.

Sources said side-letters may be signed next week.

This follows Power Ministry’s ultimatum to NTPC to sign contracts immediately. While the government had allocated 4.46 mmcmd of gas from RIL’s eastern offshore KG-D6 field, NTPC has so far signed only for 1.81 mmcmd.

At a recent review of gas withdrawal from RIL’s eastern offshore KG-D6 fields, it was informed that the government had allocated 31.1 mmcmd gas to power sector on firm basis and an additional 12 mmscd on fall back or temporary bais. Against this, only 30.11 mmcmd was been drawn by the power utilities.

It was stated at the meeting that if the power utilities continue to draw less quantity of gas than what has been allocated, there is a possibility that the unutilised gas is allocated to other sectors, they said.

Of the 4.46 mmcmd allocated to NTPC, 2.65 mmcmd was for its Kawas and Gandhar power plants in Gujarat. But the state- owned firm did not want to use KG-D6 gas at these plants since it was in litigation with the Mukesh Ambani firm over fuel supplies to expansion projects planned at these sites.

So, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) last year decided that the state gas utility GAIL India will swap KG-D6 gas with fuel from other fields. Under this scheme, gas from western offshore Panna/Mukta and Tapti (PMT) fields that was currently supplied to NTPC’s northern India plants, was to be diverted to Kawas and Gandhar. The deficit at the northern India plants was then to be made up by KG-D6 gas.

But since PMT gas supplies to NTPC’s northern plants was only 1.51 mmcmd, a swap of only that volume has been affected.

Sources said GAIL has decided that 1.51 mmcmd of PMT gas that is currently being supplied to NTPC’s northern power plants would be diverted to Kawas and Gandhar. The northern plants will then be supplied KG-D6 gas.

NTPC currently buys 0.79 mmcmd of KG-D6 gas at its Anta, 0.54 mmcmd at Dadri, 0.26 mmcmd at Auriya and 0.22 mmcmd at its Faridabad unit.

With the swap, supplies would go up to 3.31 mmcmd.

RIL currently produces 63-64 mmcmd of gas against a potential of 80 mmcmd as government nominated customers like NTPC are yet to offtake their full allocated quantity.

Source:http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ntpc-may-sign-for-additional-kg-d6-gas/92099/on

Reliance Industries Ltd has zeroed in on Singapore-based infrastructure firm InfraCo to offload 45 per cent stake in its Jhajjar SEZ. Spread out over 25,000 acres, the Rs 30,000-crore project located in Haryana is majority-owned by RIL, with 10 per cent held by the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

If the deal goes through, RIL’s holding in the project will come down to 45 per cent. FE was the first to report RIL’s in-principle decision to offload stake to a strategic partner for capital support. This would be the first time the Mukesh Ambani-led company inducts a partner for holding a major stake in any of its ventures.

The induction of InfraCo is strategically important for RIL, as the Singapore-based company has the ability to share risks associated with the infrastructure project, as it would take years for its income streams to turn robust. InfraCo funds early-stage, high-risk costs by taking an equity stake in the project and making decisions that will lead to socially responsible and successful construction and operation. In the past, IL & FS and Mitsui have also reportedly been in the fray for a strategic stake in the venture. RIL has sought Haryana’s permission to convert part of the project into an industrial model township, as it sees potential in the project as a real estate venture rather than a complete SEZ given various tax complications.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/InfraCo-may-buy-45-per-cent-in-Reliance-s-Jhajjar-SEZ/609620

Mukesh Ambani led, Reliance Industries (RIL) — India’s largest company by turnover and exports — is also set to become the country’s single-largest profitable company in FY10, thanks to its second refinery at Jamnagar and KG basin gas, when it publishes its results on Friday. On a consolidated basis, however, the ONGC Group, which includes ONGC and its subsidiaries Mangalore Refinery and ONGC Videsh, is likely to retain its leadership.

RIL, which reported a net profit of Rs 1,1526 crore for the first nine months of FY10 — around Rs 1,465 crore lower than ONGC’s — is expected to surpass the state-owned oil major’s last quarter standalone profits by over Rs 1,500 crore, according to various analyst estimates. Both companies report their quarterly numbers on a standalone basis while consolidating the numbers of subsidiaries in their annual results. ONGC Group’s consolidated net profit for FY10 is likely to remain above Rs 20,000 crore as in the previous two years.

The refining as well as E&P businesses would be the key drivers of profit growth, said Deepak Pareek, an analyst with Angel Broking. “RIL is likely to report strong performance during the quarter, primarily on account of increase in gas production and better refining margins,” he mentioned. In the past, only in FY08 had RIL’s profits surpassed those of ONGC’s, on account of extraordinary income of Rs 4,733 crore on sale of Reliance Petroleum shares. Excluding the impact of this extraordinary income, profits from operations were below that of ONGC’s.

However, now, for the first time, RIL’s profits from normal business activities, that are considered sustainable in future, are set to cross Rs 16,700 crore on a standalone basis for FY10 — the largest for any listed Indian company. ONGC, which was the single-largest profit-making company so far, is expected to close FY10 with a net profit of around Rs 16,200 crore.

In the current year, RIL’s subsidiary raised over Rs 9,300 crore through sale of treasury shares, which will add to its consolidated numbers. Although extraordinary, these profits could take RIL’s consolidated profit to a historical high hitherto unseen in Corporate India.

RIL, which is also India’s largest company by market capitalisation with a 13.2% weightage in the Sensex, witnessed a strong 46% increase in volumes in the first nine months of FY10, as its second refinery gradually reached full capacity. Higher average crude oil price — at around $78 per barrel during the March 2010 quarter as against $45 in the year ago period — is also set to boost revenues.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/stocks-in-news/RIL-to-emerge-as-most-profitable-company/articleshow/5846269.cms

Reliance Utilities and Power, which runs captive power plants for Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, today said it plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore by way of debt.

The board of directors of Reliance Utilities and Power Pvt Ltd will meet tomorrow to “consider the issue of unsecured, redeemable non-convertible debentures” for raising up to Rs 1,000 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Reliance Utilities and Power (RUPL) did not specify the need for the fund raising exercise. The company had earlier sought to raise Rs 500 crore in June, 2009, for “general corporate purposes” through issue of debt securities.

RUPL is primarily engaged in the business of setting up, operating and maintaining captive power plants at various manufacturing locations of Reliance Industries (RIL).

RUPL supplies power and steam to RIL’s facilities, such as those located at Hazira and Jamnagar. As of June, 2009, RUPL was operating and maintaining over 1,500 MW of power generation capacity.

The company has entered into a Power Purchase Agreement with RIL that is valid up to the 2015-16 fiscal. It had total secured loans worth about Rs 668 crore from banks as on March 31, 2009.

RUPL earned a net profit of Rs 243 crore in 2008, up from Rs 167 crore in the previous year.

Source:Business Standard