RIL to suspend oil and gas drilling: Report

Energy major Reliance Industries will suspend oil and gas drilling pending an internal valuation of its exploration and production strategy, a newspaper reported on Monday citing sources briefed by the company.

The firm, India's most valuable company by market capitalization, has seen its growth outlook and market value hit hard this year by falling gas output from its huge gas fields off the east coast.

Reliance will halt drilling for an unspecified time until the review is completed and submitted to the government, three analysts present at a company meeting told the newspaper.

A Reliance spokesman declined to comment on the report when contacted.

Controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, Reliance posted its highest ever quarterly net profit in its Q2 results on Saturday, but analysts focused on slowing gas output and said refining margins were still below expectations.

Last month, India's upstream regulator said Reliance was producing 44 mscmd (million standard cubic metres per day) from its main D6 block, lower than the 60 mscmd it was producing a year earlier and far off the planned peak capacity of 80 mscmd.

The CAG last month criticised Reliance and the government over development of the gas field in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin and called for revamping profit-sharing arrangements from oil and gas blocks.

Earlier this year, Reliance sold a 30 percent stake in 23 oil and gas blocks, some in the KG basin, to BP in a 7.2 billion deal.

The British company, with deepwater exploration expertise, has said it is confident of raising gas output from the field from 2014.

CBI may file case against Reliance: Report

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is considering filing a case or multiple cases against Reliance Industries over its operations of its gas block in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin, a newspaper reported on Today.

CBI is likely to name officials in the country's upstream regulator and the petroleum ministry in the case, the newspaper said, citing officials at the federal agency who declined to be named.

Earlier this month, Reliance Industries said there was no evidence to suggest that costs in development of the country's key natural gas field in the KG basin were overstated.

A Reliance Industries spokesman in Mumbai and a spokeswoman for the CBI in New Delhi declined to comment on the newspaper report.

"The preliminary inquiry against RIL and others is in final stages and very soon a case will be registered," one of the officials at the investigative agency told the newspaper, referring to Reliance Industries.

The federal auditor has criticised Reliance Industries and the government over development of a key natural gas field in the KG basin and called for revamping profit sharing arrangements from oil and gas blocks.

The offshore KG basin was expected to contribute up to one-quarter the gas supply for India, but lower-than-expected output has left the energy-hungry nation more dependent on expensive, imported LNG to fuel power and fertiliser plants.