The government has set up a judicial commission headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Ajit Prakash Shah to look into the findings of the international consultant DeGolyer & MacNaughton in the gas dispute between Reliance Industries (RIL) and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

The consultant had said 11 billion cubic meter (bcm) of gas may have flown from ONGC’s Godavari PML and KG-D5 blocks to RIL’s KG-D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin off the Andhra coast.

Markets have turned range bound in noon trades led by gains in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries and HDFC. However, profit taking in select pharma and auto shares capped upside gains.

At 1:50 pm, the 30-share Sensex was up 212 points at 25,250 and the 50-share Nifty was up about 60 points at 7,671.

Reliance Industries (RIL), the country's largest private sector company, has moved Rs 10,000-15,000 crore in the past few days from duration schemes to liquid schemes of mutual funds. Duration schemes are medium-term mutual fund schemes that provide good returns in a falling interest rate regime. Liquid schemes, on the other hand, are almost cash equivalent.

"Reliance Industries, the biggest investor in the mutual fund industry, has been aggressively shifting money from medium-term debt funds to near-cash liquid schemes in the past few days," said the chief executive of a fund house.

Two private equity firms and a strategic partner are in the race to buy the Jaypee Group's cement business at an enterprise valuation of close to Rs 19,500 crore.

The sale is expected to be concluded by next March, according to a source. ICICI Securities, which is managing the sale, has asked the three bidders to give their offers. The proceeds will be used by Jaiprakash Associates to retire a part of its Rs 61,285 crore debt held in 2014-15, down from Rs 72,599 crore in 2013-14 (see chart).

The board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), led by its vocal independent directors and government nominee, had forced the firm’s management to take legal recourse that has now led to a damning finding that Rs 11,000 crore worth of its natural gas had flowed to neighbouring block of Reliance Industries (RIL).

It all started in July 2013 when a review of the firm’s eastern offshore oil and gas campaign by the just-appointed director (exploration), Narendra Kumar Verma, led to suspicion that ONGC’s Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/2 and Godavari-PML are connected with adjoining KG-D6 block of RIL.

There is a shadow on future production from the five discoveries of the government-controlled Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, after gas reportedly flowed from two of its blocks to the adjacent Reliance Industries units off the Andhra Pradesh coast.

Dallas-based DeGoyler and MacNaughton (D&M), in a report submitted to the government on Tuesday, has put a question mark on the future production from the five ONGC discoveries. It has established continuity of the reservoir in three blocks of Reliance Industries and ONGC.

On October 16, Mukesh Ambani and chief executives officers of nine other oil and gas companies declared to be part of a joint commitment to reduce global warming by two degrees. Under Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, 10 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies — which provide a fifth of all oil and gas production and supply, 10 per cent of the world’s energy — said they would make significant investments in natural gas, carbon capture and storage, renewable energy, and low greenhouse gas (GHG) research and development.

Mumbai: Private fuel retailers Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Essar Oil Ltd have captured 3% of the local market in the last one year since diesel prices were freed from government control.

It is similar to the rate at which these companies expanded their presence in the fuel-retailing business between 2002 and 2005, when they cornered almost 12-13% of the market over three years. After that, most private fuel retailers exited the market since subsidies on products such as diesel made it unviable to compete against state-owned firms.

The Indian equity markets are still soaring high, after a gap-up opening, mainly on the back of short-covering and strength witnessed in global peers. The broad based rally across the banking and auto shares lifted the sentiment.

Overnight, the Wall Street jumped euphorically post the released of US Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes that hinted at raising the interest rates in December as it feels confident about the health of the world’s largest economy.

New Delhi: Reserving his verdict in the dispute between Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and the Union government over appointment of a third arbitrator in the KG Basin case, Justice Ranjan Gogoi of the Supreme Court on Monday said further appointments will be on hold until there is clarity on what the appropriate forum to hear the case is.

“The whole matter to be decided now is which will be the forum to hear the case,” Gogoi said, adding, “In light of the... ordinance, orders are reserved.”

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.