Asked if the appeal by American business leader Bill Gates and 25 other billionaires there to donate half their wealth to charity was a gimmick or an example to be followed, Ambani said that circumstances in India were different.
“Within India, most of the people still do not realize that all the wealth that gets published only has paper value”, he said. “I have always believed that these shares are not to be sold. The whole objective is to build an institution that is timeless and that was my motivation, my commitment to my father.” Said Mukesh Ambani.
In a nostalgic mood, Ambani recalled that his father Dhirubhai Ambani had introduced him to Pranab Mukherjee in 1980, then also Finance Minister.
At that time, Ambani said, Mukherjee had told him: “Mukesh, your father has worked very hard to build a foundation. You now have to work hard to build one of the best companies in India.

“And I (Mukesh Ambani) think thirty years from then, the satisfaction that I have is that we have built an institution… So that’s really satisfying.”
In a lighter vein, he said: “I am sure the Finance Minister will not get ideas of inheritance tax. That is the main reason that most people in the US give.” Mukesh Ambani received his award from Mukherjee, an NDTV statement said today.

Mr. Ambani, however, added that at an individual level, he would relate to the appeal and even in this part of the world, industrialists would need to give.
Hence with the entire hullabaloo over the wealth of the great man, it was he who was again humble enough to hear the plea of the people and then in a way promise to guide them to a much more secure future than just a placebo of wealth which would prove to be just a rainbow in the dark.

The Transocean rig Frontier 534 is drilling the well in a water depth of 1,653 m (5,423 ft), according to partner Hardy Oil & Gas. The target depth of the well, designed to test the hydrocarbon potential of Mio-Pliocene sands, is 3,514 m (11,529 ft) MD.

The KGV-D3-W1 was spudded April 2 by Transocean’s Deepwater Expedition, but had to be suspended at the end of May, at a depth of 2,608 m (8,556 ft) MD, due to an unresolved problem with the rig’s BOP control system.

At the time the Indian government subsidized fuel sales by state firms, knocking private retailers out of the market. “If the government announces diesel deregulation then diesel, like petrol, will also be available at market rates. Further to this Reliance will resume operations across all pumps, pan India,” the Reliance statement said. Retail sale of petrol and diesel are again viable since the end of June when the government lifted all controls on petrol and raised administered prices of other fuels including diesel. Reliance owns more than 1,400 fuel stations in India.

The government plans to free diesel prices also, but the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission told Reuters in an interview the government would set diesel rates for the next few months. Essar Oil, the only other private refiner in India, and Reliance had together captured about 17 percent of domestic retail market for diesel and accounted for 10 percent of petrol sales by 2005 before they were forced to shut down their pumps.

“Now, with the deregulation of petrol, there is a level playing field and Reliance petrol will now be sold at the same price as that of the other oil companies,” the statement said.

“We have received bids from five companies for the solar energy project to be set up in Parliament,” TPS Sidhu, the Chief Executive of Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA), which is executing the project, told PTI here.

Three other companies, which have submitted bids, are Wipro Ecoenergy, Lanco and Gurgaon-based DD Solar23 India.

“We are evaluating the bids and successful bidder will be (for Parliament project) announced within next 10 days,” he said, adding that the project was expected to be completed within next three months.

PEDA, which has been asked by the Centre to implement the solar power project in Parliament, had invited bids for commissioning of power project with a capacity of 80 KW using solar photovoltaic technology and its operation and maintenance for 10 years.

“Out of 80 KW of power generation, 50 KW of power will be fed into grid system and rest will be used for battery back up at the Parliament house annexe,” he said.

The Centre had allocated the solar power project for the Parliament House over four months back to PEDA keeping in view of its expertise in non-conventional and renewable energy resources.

“The main objective of this project is to demonstrate and popularise the renewable and new energy resources for the power generation and it has been awarded under the Special Area Demonstration Programme of the government,” he informed.

Besides setting up solar power generation unit, other components of the project are installing water heating system of 2,000 litres capacity, illumination of the house and setting up a small biogas plant of half a tonne capacity per day for the Kitchen in Parliament.

“The other components of the project will be done in a phased manner,” said Sidhu.

State-owned PEDA is a nodal agency for promotion and development of renewable energy projects including solar, biogas and small hydel projects in Punjab. It is also a nodal agency for facilitating project for carbon credit under Clean Development Mechanism.

“The audit is complete at CAG end. We are currently in the final compilation stage after which the report will be sent to the Oil Ministry for comments,” a CAG official said.

CAG, which went into the $ 8.8 bn cost incurred by Reliance in producing gas from the nation’s largest field, had examined and received replies on its audit comments from the Mukesh Ambani-led firm.

“In another 30 days, we plan to send it (the report) to the Petroleum Ministry,” the official said.

When asked if Reliance had fully cooperated with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in submiting records pertaining to KG-D6 fields, the official said: “They have given, if not 100 per cent, but mostly what we wanted.”

The CAG plans to complete the entire audit process, which will include incorporating oil ministry’s comments on its findings, by November.

“In 3-4 months time, we will be done with the special audit report. Based on the ministry’s comment, CAG will decide the necessity of placing the report in Parliament,” he said.

Since the audit of KG-D6 is not a statutory audit, as is being done in case of public sector firms, the premier auditor would decide based on ministry’s comments on its findings if the report has to be placed in the Parliament.

“Our intention of the audit is to find out if there was any loss of revenue to the government because of any improper increase in capital expenditure in the KG-D6 fields,” he said.

Government is to get between 10 to 90 per cent of the revenue generated from sale of gas over the life of the field after deducting expenses incurred by the operator (Reliance).

“While it took a while to persuade the ministry for the CAG audit, it then took the ministry some time to persuade the companies as this audit was the first of its kind. So the delay of over two years,” he said.

CAG started audit of Krishna Godavari basin D6 field on December 21 last year. It, however, faced some difficulty in accessing new documets it sought after completing the first round of scrutiny. But within a month, RIL complied and the premier auditor made good progress thereafter.

Petroleum Ministry asked CAG to audit the accounts of RIL, which faced allegations of gold-plating gas field costs that has increased four-fold to $8.8 bn.

RIL had on August 17 agreed to an audit by CAG but the nation’s premier auditor could put its house in order for the audit only by December.

CAG’s scope of audit of PSC in respect of the block KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) awarded to RIL, for two financial years – 2006-07 and 2007-08, with access to records of previous years linked to transactions of these years.

Under the proposed transaction, Reliance will acquire a 60% interest in Marcellus Shale acreage in Central and Northeast Pennsylvania that is currently held in a 50‐50 joint venture between Carrizo and ACP II Marcellus LLC, an affiliate of Avista Capital Partners. Pursuant to the transaction, Reliance will acquire 100% of Avista’s interest and 20% of Carrizo’s interests in the joint venture. Upon completion of the transaction, Reliance and Carrizo will own 60% and 40% interests, respectively, in a newly formed joint venture between the companies.

Reliance will pay a total consideration of $392 million, comprising of $340 million of cash and $52 million of drilling carry obligations. The drilling carry obligations will provide for 75% of Carrizo’s share of development costs over an anticipated two year development program. The joint venture will have approximately 104,400 net acres of undeveloped leasehold in the core area of the Marcellus Shale in Central and Northeast Pennsylvania, of which Reliance’s 60% interest will represent approximately 62,600 net acres. This acreage is expected to support the drilling of approximately 1,000 wells over the next 10 years, with a net resource potential of about 3.4 Tcfe (2.0 Tcfe net to Reliance). The transaction allows for additional growth in the development acreage, at pre‐agreed terms.

Carrizo will serve as the development operator for the joint venture and Reliance has the option to act as a development operator in certain regions in the coming years as part of the joint venture. The transaction is anticipated to close by mid‐September 2010. Commenting on the joint venture, Mr. Walter Van de Vijver, President, International E&P Business, Reliance Industries said, “Reliance is excited about the opportunity to further expand presence in the Marcellus Shale in the United States. We are pleased to establish a long‐term partnership with Carrizo, which has demonstrated operating expertise in the shale plays. The proposed joint venture will supplement strengths achieved through our recent joint ventures and further expands our footprint in North American shale gas operations.”
Jefferies & Company, Inc. acted as lead financial advisor and Vinson & Elkins LLP acted as legal counsel to Reliance. BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank provided strategic advise to RIL in respect of this investment.

Mukesh Ambani’s RIL-Infotel has installed, as per the source, five WiMax base station in which three are from Alvarion and two are from Samsung. The company is checking interoperability among various BTSs and devices along with factors that hold key to a business.

Infotel won BWA spectrum in all 22 telecom circles across the country for a whopping Rs 12,847.77 crore. On the same day RIL had announced to acquire 95 per cent stake in the company.

The entry of Mukesh Ambani into telecom will create death knell for several players. The mobile industry is yet to recover from shocks following the implementation of the per second billing concept. Mukesh Ambani, when launched Reliance Infocomm, was the first to take on Vodafone and Bharti Airtel with cost effective schemes. Mahendra Nahata created history when HFCL won several mobile circles when the telecom industry was opened up for private players in mid 1990s. But Nahatas could not complete their mission. Mukesh Ambani, who settled his issues with brother Anil Ambani, can now enter telecom space and is looking for buying out operators.

The success of WiMax trials being run by Reliance-Infotel will be a big blow to Qualcomm, the evangelist of TD LTE technology, which is expected to make foray into global market by late 2012 or early 2013.

According to WiMax Forum, there are more than 300 WiMax devices of all types like datacards, Indoor CPE, WiMax Hand Sets etc, already certified by it for use in more than 540 mobile WiMax networks in 140 countries. There are more addition expected by WiMax Forum to this existing range of devices.

Source:http://news-views.in/mukesh-ambani-back-with-a-bang/