Reliance Industries rose 1.98% to Rs 1,007.35 at 11:58 IST on reports the company has got up to 25% higher price offers for natural gas it produces from the eastern offshore Krishna-Godavari basin.
\nMeanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 139.69 points, or 0.72%, to 19486.65.
\nOn BSE, 8.90 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 8.61 lakh shares in the past one quarter.
\nThe stock hit a high of Rs 1014.80 and a low of Rs 985.70 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 1184.70 on 11 January 2010 and a 52-week low of Rs 840.55 on 1 June 2010.
\nThe stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 14 September 2010, gaining 0.89% compared with the Sensex’s 6.49% jump. It also underperformed the market in past one quarter, sliding 7.11% as against 11.59% rise in the Sensex.
\nIndia’s largest private sector firm by market capitalisation has an equity capital of Rs 3271.77 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
\nReliance Industries (RIL)’s senior vice-president (Commercial) B Ganguly is reported to have written to Oil Secretary S Sundareshan saying that RIL has received proposals from GMR Energy and Welspun Maxsteel for purchase of additional gas from Krishna-Godavari basin at prices between $4.75 and $5.25 per million British thermal units.
\nThe price the two customers based in Andhra Pradesh are willing to pay is more than the $4.205 per mmBtu price approved by the government for a five-year period ending March 2014.
\nThough the letter did not explicitly seek a revision in prices, Ganguly cited provisions in the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) that RIL has signed with the government to say that a higher price would be beneficial to the government and the company.
\nAccording to reports, the company did not make any suggestion for a revision in rates, but referred the proposals received to the ministry for advice and action.
\nFurthermore, the company has all along in the legal battle with the Anil Ambani Group — which was seeking gas as per a family agreement at rates lower than the government-approved price — stated that RIL was a mere contractor and the government alone had the powers to approve a price and fix users of the gas.
\nAs per the Gas Utilisation Policy, the government has the sole authority to identify customers and allocate gas volumes to them.
\nReliance Industries’ net profit rose 32.3% to Rs 4,851 crore on 86.7% increase in net sales to Rs 58,228 crore in Q1 June 2010 over Q1 June 2009.<\/p>\n