The Gujarat state government and the Centre are at loggerheads over the size of the latest gas find by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC).
The Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dinsha Patel, has contested the Gujarat government's claim of a 3 trillion cubic feet (TCF) find by GSPC in the KG basin.
The minister said the gas find could be much lower than that claimed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in July.
"You cannot estimate the reserves on Day One of the discovery itself. If the recent announcement by the chief minister were true, I would have gone ahead and congratulated him. And so far, I haven't congratulated him," Patel told Business Standard on the sidelines of an event organised by ONGC here.
He said the chief minister's claims about the gas discoveries worth $100 billion was a 'mere political statement'. GSPC had discovered gas in a new well (KG-22) in the Deendayal block, which it had won under the third round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp-III).
Earlier, the chief minister had claimed that the reserves in the block could be around 20 TCF. The Union minister has said earlier that the reserves in the block would not be in excess of 4 TCF.
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The Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had officially put the figure at 3.6 TCF. DGH had asked GSPC to drill more wells to prove its claim of the field having a 20 TCF of natural gas reserve.
However, the chief minister had reiterated his stand.
"If there is more gas, it will be good for the country. Moreover, the gas would go to the Centre so why should we not appreciate the claims if it were true?" according to Patel. Reliance Industries' gas block, one of the largest discoveries in the country, in the same basin has reserves of 11.3 TCF.
From 2011, GSPC plans to pump 8-10 million standard cubic metres per day from the block where they made the first of the five gas discoveries in June 2005 in KG-8 well.
GSPC has chalked out plans to spend Rs 4,000 crore over the next three-four years to produce oil and gas from the KG basin block. The company is also looking to a raise money through a public offer early next year.