Govt gets biggest profit pie from Cairn as RIL declines

NEW DELHI: Cairn India has paid over $7 billion to the government in the last three fiscal by way of profit petroleum from its Rajasthan oil fields. This accounts for 60% of profit petroleum mopped up by the Centre from fields run by private companies.
The government received $12 billion in profit petroleum from oil and gas fields operated by private firms such as Cairn and Reliance Industries Ltd during 2011-12 to 2013-14, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
BG Group-operated Panna/Mukta and Tapti field was second-largest contributor after Cairn, paying more than $2.5 billion. Cairn's Ravva field gave $1 billion and its Cambay basin field CB-OS/2 an additional $316 million.
The government collected $486 million from Reliance’s eastern offshore KG-D6 block. With KG-D6 output dropping, the government's profit share too has dipped from $251 million in 2011-12 to $153 million in 2012-13 and $82 million in 2013-14.
Government is entitled to a pre-fixed share of profit from the oil and gas fields. This profit petroleum rises after all cost incurred on the field are recovered.“A cumulative profit petroleum of $11.95 billion has been realised by the government under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) regime during 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14,” Pradhan said.
Cairn's Rajasthan block, where the government's share of profit has been fixed at a ceiling of 50%, gave the government a profit petroleum of $1.7 billion in 2011-12, $2.6 billion in 2012-13 and $2.6 billion in 2013-14.
Its Ravva oil and gas field gave the government a profit share of $440 million in 2011-12, $362 million in 2012-13 and $264 million in the following year, he said.
Pradhan said domestic natural gas production of 129 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) in 2014-15 will be way short of a demand of 405 million cubic metres. The demand is projected to rise to 446 mcmd next fiscal and 473 mcmd in 2016-17. Against this, domestic gas output will increase in 139 mcmd in 2015-16 and 175 mcmd in 2016-17.
Similarly, crude oil production is projected to rise from 38.76 million tons in current fiscal to 42.54 million tonne next year before dropping to 41.15 million tonne in 2016-17. Against this, oil demand is projected at 159.8 million tons in 2014-15, 177.7 million tonne in 2015-16 and 186.8 million tonne in the following year, he added.