Shell victorious in Indian tax battle

On Tuesday, the high court in Mumbai ruled in favour of Shell in a high-stakes court battle with Indian authorities over transfer pricing. Shell India faced accusations of under-pricing the shares it had transferred its parent company back in February 2013.

Accusations levelled against the company’s local unit suggested under-pricing by as much as £1.9 billion. Indian authorities were after tax on the interest that Shell would have been earned. However, the court said in its ruling that stock transfer are not taxable.

In other news, the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation announced investment of about $1.7 billion in development programmes in western offshore fields last week. The company direct $984 million to the Mumbai High South redevelopment project phase III and $749 million to the integrated development project of the Mukta, Bassein and Panna formations.

Through the drilling of 36 new wells and 34 sidetrack wells, to be completed by the end of March 2019, the Mumbai High South redevelopment project phase III aims at adding 55.3 million barrels of oil and 3.86 bcm (136.4 bcf) of natural gas to production by 2030. The other development project includes the drilling of 18 wells with production targets of 10 mcm (353 mcf) of gas and 950 barrels of oil per day by 2017-2018.