Reliance Industries' much talked about D6 gas field is facing delays in beginning of production but the government unwilling to penalise for missing the schedule.
"I have been told that there is a little bit of delay in gas production (from RIL's D6 fields) because of technical reasons," Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey told reporters here.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and his deputy Dinsha Patel had told Parliament on several occasions that Reliance will begin gas production from D6 in July 2008.
Pandey, however, stated that Reliance was likely to begin gas production from D6 by end-October. "By October-end gas will start flowing, that is what I am told."
The company on its part had initially said that gas production from D6 would begin in third quarter of 2008 but later stated that what it meant was third quarter of 2008-09 fiscal.
Pandey said the government was not planning to impose any penalty on Reliance for the delay. "(There is) no penalty for delay."
Meanwhile, Reliance today said it no longer plans to transfer 80 per cent of its D6 stake to four unlisted wholly-owned subsidiaries.
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"Our projects are nearing completion and we have successfully raised the finance and so do not wish to pursue the application seeking approval to assign our participating interest to our 100 per cent-owned subsidiaries and have since withdrawn it (the application)," a company press release said.
Interestingly, a company spokesperson had just last week stated that Reliance had applied for stake transfer to raise finances for gas development project.