RIL gains after issuing arbitration notice to government

Reliance Industries rose 2.50% to Rs 1,022.30 at 9:22 IST on BSE after the company, along with its partners, served an arbitration notice over implementation of a new gas price from 1 April 2014.

The company made the announcement on Saturday, 10 May 2014.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 340.47 points, or 1.48%, to 23,334.70.

On BSE, so far 85,000 shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 3.55 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 1,020.80 so far during the day, which is also a 52-week high for the counter. The stock hit a low of Rs 995 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 765 on 28 August 2013.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 9 May 2014, rising 3.77% compared with 1.29% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 22.48% as against Sensex's 12.85% rise.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 3232.26 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Reliance Industries (RIL), BP and NIKO issued a Notice of Arbitration on 9 May 2014 to the Government of India seeking the implementation of the Domestic Natural Gas Pricing Guideline 2014 notified on 10 January 2014.

RIL said in a statement that the continuing delay on part of the Government of India in notifying the price in accordance with the approved formula for the gas to be sold has left the parties with no other option but to pursue this course of action. Without this clarity, the parties are unable to sanction planned investments of close to $4 billion this year. In addition, this will also delay the ability of the parties to appraise and develop other significant discoveries made last year. Overall, the parties were planning to invest $ 8-10 billion in the next few years to significantly increase production from the KGD6 block. This domestic production is essential for meeting India's energy needs and will also help conserve foreign exchange which is required for imports of natural gas into India at the present time. All of this requires clarity on pricing. The three parties shall endeavour to work with the Government to achieve a prompt and efficient resolution of this dispute, RIL said.

RIL's net profit rose 0.8% to Rs 5631 crore on 13.1% growth in net sales to Rs 95193 crore in Q4 March 2014 over Q4 March 2013.

RIL's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals), textiles, retail and broadband services.

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