January 08 2009 - EGoM decision on RIL Gas supplies to Reliance Power

Anil Ambani's entity plans a Gas based power plant at Dadri in uttar Pradesh and the EGoM has decided to direct RIL to supply gas to the 7,480 mw plant if it's available from the Kaveri-Godavari basin. The EGoM meeting was attended by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Law Minister HR Bharadwaj and Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, according to a front page ET exclusive report in the financial daily, The Economic Times dated January 08, 2009. The article is titled 'End in sight to Ambani Gas Row'.

December 24 2008 - Justice KK Tated Transferred to Aurangabad Bench from the Mumbai High Court

Justice KK Tated was transferred on December 24 2008 as part of a routine re shuffle. Ram Jethmalani and Mukul Rohtagi, both lawyers representing RNRL requested continuation of Justice KK Tated on the same Mumbai High Court Division Bench to facilitate early hearing of the case.

December 11 2008 - Govt Withdrew its affidavit filed in favor of Mr Mukesh Ambani

http://domain-b.com/industry/oil_gas/20081211_government_withdraws_affidavit.html

The Division Bench of the Mumbai High Court consisting of Justice KK Tated and Justice JN Patel suggested the Government withdraw its affidavit stating that "Sale of Gas at a price less than $4.20 per million British Thermal Units is not envisaged according to the decision taken by the Government of India's Empowered Group of Ministers with respect to the Production Sharing Contract between the Govt. and Reliance Industries Ltd.", according to the linked article.

The RIL-RNRL dispute

This article provides good numerical facts about the dispute but appears to me to be slightly biased.

Reliance Industries Ltd., The US Exim Bank and Iran Gas supplies

On Dec 20, 2008, this report on India Business News Live stated that 8 United States Congressmen, 4 from the Republican Party and 4 from the Democratic Party wrote to James Lambright, President of the United States Export-Import Bank asking the bank to secure an understanding with Reliance Industries Ltd. that gasoline supplies to Iran will be suspended before the disbursement of two loan guarantee packages worth $ 900 million. Prior to the Exim bank transaction, RIL received a loan of $ 400 million from JP Morgan in August 2008.
The Reliance Industries Ltd. expansion program will significantly improve United States exports to India.
On January 08, 2009, energy business review reported that RIL has announced it is suspending gasoline supply to Iran after fulfillment of its existing contract.
Following an Iran News Blog with great cartoons on it has paid off in terms of financial insight today.

US Treasury fights in Sri Lanka's Uncivil War

This post examines recent geopolitical developments in Sri Lanka to divine the financial dimensions of the ongoing war in that country. Sri Lanka is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, just south of India's southern coastline. Here's a link to The United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Blake's speech on the United States Department of State views on Sri Lanka at the University of Madras (Chennai) on October 24,2008.
According to Ambassador Blake's speech, sometime after November 2007, the United States Department of the Treasury designated the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization under Executive Order 13224, thereby freezing the TRO's assets in the US and prohibiting Americans from dealing with them. This was following an anti-terrorist investigation in which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was linked with the TRO.
The official Department of State stand is to catalyze a political solution in Sri Lanka and establish a democratic government for all of Sri Lanka. It appears that the US has allowed the Sinhala Army to defeat the LTTE, mainly by choking off funding to the LTTE, in order to hasten the 'political solution'.
On January 01, 2009, offensive divisions of the Sinhala Army in the Wanni Theater of operations announced the imminent capture, within 48 hours, of the LTTE Capital of KilliNochi. Tiger propaganda would have it that KilliNochi was simply a 'ghost town', already evacuated by the Tigers before its capture. The Sinhala Army is now pursuing the capture of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the supreme leader of the Tigers.
Sri Lanka in 2007 was de facto an island with two nations on it. The North and North Eastern parts of Sri Lanka were controlled by the Tigers, while the rest of Sri Lanka was the actual Sinhala nation with its capital in Colombo. The Tigers had set up border control posts to delimit their territory. The Tigers had their own Army, Battle Tanks, a Sea Tiger navy fleet, and so on. Throughout the last few months of 2008, every week there were reports and announcements in the Indian media of miraculous successes of the Sinhala Army.
Some 200,000 Tamil civilians overall are reported to have been displaced, with massive uncounted civilian casualties of Tamils caught in the crossfire between the Sinhala forces and the Tiger strongholds. Both New Delhi and the international press have maintained a studied silence on the issue. There has been no Indian intervention, with the exception of one ship from India containing humanitarian relief supplies for the Tamils. There has been no discussion on this issue at the United Nations; no proposals for a ceasefire; and no talk of any outside military intervention to stop the violence.
My analysis is that the international silence on the ongoing war in Sri Lanka is closely connected with Sri Lanka's Natural Gas Reserves, The European concerns over Russian Natural Gas supplies and Gazprom's recent decision to cut off NG supplies to Ukraine.
Most importantly, all this probably has profound implications for what is really going on behind the scenes in the unfolding battle between the Reliance Group Ambani brothers over the new Natural Gas finds in the Krishna Godavari basin in India.