Benchmark indices continued to trade firm after a gap up opening led by L&T and Tata Motors while index heavyweight Reliance industries rebounded after the recent correction post the gas price hike.

At 10.40AM, the 30-share Sensex is up 179 points at 26,754 and the 50-share Nifty is up 54 points at 7,982.

The new gas pricing policy would make deep water discoveries of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) viable, according to equity research firm Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch. According to the approved pricing policy, gas from deepwater and ultra deep water discoveries would get a higher price to be determined as per the prescribed procedure. “Thus R-cluster, satellite fields and MJ1 discoveries in the KG-D6 block and those in NEC-25 and CYD5 would realise higher price and would be developed,” said BofA ML, in a note.

Shares of Canada-based Niko Resources, a partner of Reliance Industries (RIL) in the D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin and NEC-25 gas block in the Bay of Bengal, dropped 47.95 per cent to C$0.38 apiece (at the time of going to press on Monday) in the wake of the Centre's move to increase natural gas prices by 46 per cent from $4.2 per million British thermal (mBtu) units to $6.17 per mBtu from November 1. Reliance Industries' (RIL) scrip dropped 0.39 per cent at Rs 934.5 a share on the BSE on Monday.

RIL holds 60 per cent interest in D6 block and NEC-25 blocks, while BP India holds the remaining 30 per cent interest. Niko is also the operator of and holds a 33.33 per cent interest in the Hazira Field in Gujarat.

Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) has dipped nearly 3% at Rs 913, its lowest level since March 31 this year on BSE on reports that the company will not get the new gas price for its currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields in eastern offshore KG-D6 till it makes up for the shortfall in production in the past four years. The stock touched a low of Rs 912 on NSE.

However, the stock recovered from its early morning low and trading lower by 1% at Rs 932 on BSE at 0944 hours. A combined 1.38 million shares changed hands on the counter so far on NSE and BSE.

The much-awaited decision on gas prices has finally come. However, production is unlikely to increase in the near term. The decision to raise the price from the current $4.2/mBtu to $5.61/mBtu will impact three of India's upstream companies differently. It is a positive for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL). It is sentimentally negative for Reliance Industries (RIL), as the revised pricing formula is not going to apply to the company till arbitration proceedings are on. Till this is resolved, the difference between the revised and earlier price of $4.2/mBtu will be credited to a gas pool account maintained by GAIL.

The market believes ONGC and OIL would be the biggest beneficiaries of diesel price deregulation and the gas price revision. With underrecoveries disappearing in the case of diesel, ONGC is expected to gain the most, believe oil & gas analysts. Diesel accounts for 55 per cent of total underrecoveries and about half of it is borne by public sector oil and gas producers. Within that, most of it is borne by ONGC.

Reliance Industries has said its efforts to step up gas production at the KG-D6 block haven’t met expectations thus far and a recent appraisal well drilled to assess hydrocarbon potential has turned out to be unsuccessful. RIL’s senior management told analysts who track the company at a meeting following the declaration of its September quarter results on October 13.

Mumbai, Oct. 14: Reliance Industries (RIL) has said it will make a final investment decision on producing gas from the R-Cluster discovery in the KG-D6 block only after the Union government takes a call on raising gas prices.

RIL and its partners BP plc of the UK and Canada’s Niko Resources plan to produce about 13 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas for 13 years from the D-34 discovery, known as R-Cluster, in the KG-D6 block by 2017-18.

Reliance Industries is trading higher by nearly 2% at Rs 973 on BSE in early morning deals after it reported a better-than-expected consolidated net profit at Rs 5,972 crore for the quarter ended September 2014 (Q2) on back of improved gross refining margins (GRMs) and lower input costs. The company had registered a profit of Rs 5,873 crore during the same quarter last fiscal.

However, consolidated net sales declined 4.3% to Rs 113,396 crore from Rs 118,439 crore for the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) beat analysts’ expectations during the July-September quarter, with its profit increasing 1.7 per cent over the year-ago period. Even as lower exports, a decline in crude oil prices and reduced refining and oil & gas volumes had a bearing on the company’s earnings during the quarter, higher profitability in the core refining & petrochemicals business helped. Good sales in the organised retail space also boosted the numbers for RIL.

On a consolidated basis, Reliance Industries’ turnover in the period stood at Rs 1,13,396 crore, a drop of 4.3 per cent from Rs 1,18,439 crore a year ago. At Rs 5,972 crore, however, its net profit was 1.7 per cent higher than Rs 5,873 crore in the same period last year. The value of its exports from India stood at Rs 66,065 crore, 14.7 per cent lower than Rs 77,428 crore in July-September 2013.

Falling crude oil prices will make it more difficult for Reliance Industries to get enough returns on its $7.4-billion investment in three US joint ventures, say analysts.

As already reported, RIL plans to sell 45 per cent stake in its joint venture for shale gas in the US with Pioneer Natural Resources.

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