<div>Things have been going right for Reliance of late. On Tuesday, 12 March, Iraq shortlisted Reliance Industries and six other firms for developing its Nasiriya oilfield and the construction of an associated 300,000 barrels per day refinery. Earlier on 11 March, ending weeks of stalemate, the Defence Ministry cleared Reliance producing KG-D6 block and gas discovery area NEC-26 along with most of the areas where it had either barred any oil and gas activity or put stringent conditions. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch also upgraded Reliance Industries as outlook for refining margins improves. The target price for the stock has been increased by 9 per cent to Rs 893.<br /><br />Coming back to the Iraq fields, besides RIL, French energy giant Total, Russia's Lukoil, CNPC of China and American firm Brown Energy have been shortlisted for the project, according to Iraq's Oil Ministry.<br /><br />Russia's Zarubezhneft and JGC & Tonen General of Japan are the other two shortlisted from 14 companies that expressed interest in taking up the multi-billion dollar project.<br /><br />The seven qualified firms will now be invited to review data packages and discuss contract terms. Iraq intends to award the project by year end.<br /><br />The OPEC nation has three main refineries - Baiji, Daura and Basra -- with a total capacity of around 567,000 barrels per day (bpd). It wants to increase the refining capacity to 750,000 bpd through improvements in existing plants.<br /><br />It also plans four new refineries in Karbala, Kirkuk, Missan and in Nassiriya.<br /><br />"The Al-Nasiriya Integrated Project contemplates the development of the 4+ billion barrel Nasiriya oil field in Thi-Qar province together with the construction and operation of a new 300,000 bpd refinery," Iraq's Petroleum Contracts & Licensing Directorate (PCLD), part of the Ministry of Oil, said.<br /><br />The international engineering and construction firm Foster Wheeler recently completed a Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) study for the refinery.<br /><br />The Nasiriya project marks re-entry of RIL into Iraq.<br /><br />The company's Dubai-based arm Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC had in 2007 taken a 100 per cent stake in the Rovi and Sarta blocks in Kurdistan.<br /><br />Baghdad termed the award of exploration contract to RIL and other firms by the autonomous Kurdistan region as illegal and threatened to blacklist any firm that dealt with the Kurds.<br /><br />A year after the blacklisting threat, RIL did not apply for being shortlisted for development of oil fields in Iraq.<br /><br />Thereafter, it did not figure in the list of companies applying to bid for successive licensing rounds of Iraq.<br /><br />RIL finally got rid of the Kurd blocks in July last year when it sold its stake to Chevron Corp for an undisclosed sum.<br /><br />With the Kurd baggage off its back, the company is back at doing business with Iraq and applied to be qualified for the Nassiriya project.<br /><br />After years of war and sanctions, Iraq aims to produce 5-6 million bpd of crude by 2015 against a current output of 3.4 million bpd, the highest in three decades.<br /><strong><br /><a href="http:// http://www.businessworld.in/en/storypage/-/bw/defence-ministry-clears-oil-blocks-of-ril-others/813744.37491/page/0">Defence Ministry Clears Oil Blocks Of RIL, Others</a></strong><br />Ending weeks of stalemate, the Defence Ministry has cleared Reliance Industries' producing KG-D6 block and gas discovery area NEC-26 along with most of the areas where it had either barred any oil and gas activity or put stringent conditions.<br /> <br />In all 8 blocks, including RIL's Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 block and gas discovery area of NEC-25 in the North East Coast (NEC) region, were declared "No-Go" zones for reasons like overlapping with proposed Naval base or being close to missile launching and Air Force exercise area. Stringent conditions were put for another 32 exploration areas.<br /> <br />At a meeting taken by National Secretary Advisor Shivshankar Menon and Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji on February 27, RIL blocks were fully cleared for exploration and production and stringent conditions for most of the 32 other blocks relaxed, sources said.<br /><br />RIL's KG-D6 was fully cleared for oil and gas activity with the total area of 7,645 square kilometre reduced by 495 sq km to meet defence needs, sources said.<br /> <br />Similarly, its NEC-OSN-97/2, where six gas finds have so far been made, was fully cleared with the "hold harmless" clause for any accidental debris.<br /> <br />RIL's KG-OSN-2001/1 was also cleared but the block had already been relinquished by the operator.<br /><br />(BW Online Bureau & Agencies)<br /><br /> </div>
