Reliance Industries Ltd.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) may lose authorization for the proposed 1,100-km pipeline from Kakinada in Andhra to Haldia in West Bengal. It may be given, instead, to an Andhra Pradesh state utility, as it has failed to make progress. The Andhra Pradesh Gas Infrastructure Corporation, a joint venture of AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and AP Genco, has issued an expression of interest (EoI) to build a pipeline for the 90 km from Kakinada to Vizag.

The ministry of petroleum and natural gas had, in 2007, issued authorisation to Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL), a RIL group company, for the trunk pipeline. This was before the downstream petroleum sector regulator, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, came into being, in October 2007. RIL, the country’s biggest gas producer, already operates the 1,440-km, east-west pipeline, the country’s longest gas transportation one, from Kakinada to Bharuch in Gujarat.

RIL is currently producing about 60 million standard cubic metres of gas per day (mscmd) from the KG-D6 block and it is expected to raise production to 80 mscmd by next year.