Written by: ENS Economic Bureau
2 min readMumbaiFeb 23, 2011 02:41 AM IST
First published on: Feb 23, 2011 at 02:41 AM IST
A day after BP agreed to buy a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas blocks owned by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd RIL at a cost of 7.2 billion,RIL said its partner Canadas Niko Resources can raise its stake to 13 per cent from 10 per cent in the key gas producing KG D6 block,off Indias east coast.
Niko Resources was informed about our partnership with BP. As per the contractual provision,Niko can increase by 30 per cent of their current holdings, Reliance said in a statement.
Niko can raise its stake to 13 per cent from the current 10 per cent stake in NEC 25 block and to 19.5 per cent in D4 block from the present 15 per cent stake,the statement said.
Though the Sensex fell 142 points,RIL shares closed 2.98 per cent higher at Rs 985.05 on the BSE on Tuesday as the deal with BP boosted the sentiment.
In 2000,Niko secured a 10 per cent interest in the D6 Block located offshore on the east coast in India where Niko and its partner,Reliance Industries Ltd have conducted successful exploration programmes that resulted in the largest gas discovery in the world for the year 2002 with initial reserves of gas in place estimated to exceed 13 trillion cubic feet.
In 2006,oil was discovered in the D6 Block in K-G basin with oil production commencing in September 2008.
The company is one of the fastest growing companies in the industry with a market capitalisation of over 5 billion trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange TSE.
On February 11,Niko said it received the operators volume forecast for the fiscal year ended March 31,2012.
The forecast predicts that volumes during the period will remain flat at current production levels,it said.
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