HispanicBusiness

The PSC for the D6 Block requires that natural gas be sold at arm's length prices, with "arm's length" defined as sales made freely in the open market between willing and unrelated sellers and buyers, and that the pricing formula be approved by the government of India ("GOI"). In May 2007, Reliance, on behalf of the joint venture partners, discovered an arm's length price for the sale of gas on a transparent basis with a term of three years and, accordingly, proposed a gas price formula to the GOI. In September 2007, the GOI approved a pricing formula with some modification to the proposed formula. As a result of these modifications, the gas price is capped at $4.20/MMBtu and the formula was declared effective for a period of five years rather than the three years proposed by Reliance. The Company has signed numerous gas sales contracts with customers in the fertilizer, power, steel, city gas distribution, liquefied petroleum gas market and pipeline transportation industries, and all of these contracts expire on March 31, 2014. In June 2012, Reliance submitted to the GOI for approval a proposal for a new crude oil-linked pricing formula to be used in new sales contracts for the period commencing April 1, 2014. The proposed formula by Reliance was based on the pricing formula under a contract for long-term import of LNG into India and was universally accepted by arm's length buyers who bid in large numbers in an open price discovery process. In December 2012, the Rangarajan committee, a special committee appointed by the GOI, submitted its report to the GOI which included a recommendation on a domestic natural gas pricing mechanism. The recommended pricing mechanism is based on the average of the import price for LNG into India and a volume-weighted average of the prices of gas in North America, Europe and Japan. Based on current inputs into the pricing formula, the price for natural gas sales would be approximately $8 - $8.50/MMBtu. The GOI is currently reviewing the recommended price formula.

The production and operating expenses for the D6 Block relate primarily to the offshore wells and facilities, the onshore gas plant facilities and the operating fee portion of the lease of the FPSO. The majority of these expenses are fixed in nature with repairs and maintenance expenditures incurred as required.

The Company calculates and remits profit petroleum expense to the GOI in accordance with the PSC for the D6 Block. The profit petroleum calculation considers capital, operating and other expenditures made by Reliance on behalf of the joint venture partners. Because there are unrecovered costs to date, the GOI's share of profit petroleum has amounted to the minimum level of one percent of gross revenue. Profit petroleum expense will increase above the minimum level once past unrecovered costs have been fully recovered. The Company has included certain costs in the profit petroleum calculations that are being contested by the GOI and has received notice from the GOI making allegations in relation to the fulfillment of certain obligations under the PSC for the D6 Block. Refer to note 14 to the consolidated financial statements for nine months ended December 31, 2012 for a complete discussion of this contingency.

The Company currently pays royalty expense of five percent of gross revenue, increasing to ten percent of gross revenue in May 2016. Royalty payments are deductible in calculating profit petroleum.

The Company pays the greater of minimum alternate tax and regular income taxes for the D6 Block. In the calculation of regular income taxes, the Company believes it is entitled to a seven-year income tax holiday commencing from the first year of commercial production and has claimed the tax holiday in the filing of tax return for fiscal 2012. Minimum alternate tax is the amount of tax payable in respect of accounting profits. Minimum alternate tax paid can be carried forward for 10 years and deducted against regular income taxes in future years.