American consultants DeGolyer & MacNaughton have submitted their final report on the gas dispute between state-run explorer ONGC and Reliance Industries (RIL) that says natural gas worth over Rs.11,000 crore has migrated from ONGC's idling KG fields to RIL's adjoining KG-D6 block, an official source said on Tuesday
"The report more-or-less reiterates what D&M had said in their draft report that some gas had migrated from ONGC's Krishna Godavari basin blocks to RIL's KG-D6 fields," said the petroleum ministry source, adding that the government will now examine the report to decide the extent of compensation to ONGC for its gas being produced by RIL.
"The Supreme Court had in its order stated that the government will, in six months from the date of receipt of D&M report, have to decide on addressing the ONGC contention. That we will do," he said.
The D&M report says 11.122 billion cubic meters (bcm) of ONGC gas has migrated from Godavari-PML and KG-DWN-98/2 its Krishna Godavari basin KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) and the Godavari Producing Mining Lease (PML) to Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1 & D3) field located in the KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) Block of RIL, as the reservoirs in question are connected.
It says that of the 58.68 bcm of gas produced from KG-D6 block since April 1, 2009, 49.69 bcm belongs to RIL and 8.981 bcm could have come from ONGC's side
At gas price of $4.2 per million British thermal unit, the volume of gas belonging to ONGC which RIL has produced comes out to worth $1.7 billion (Rs.11,055 crore).
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ONGC had moved the high court here alleging that RIL extracted gas upto 18 billion cubic meters (bcm) from ONGC blocks resulting in loss of several thousand crores of rupees.
In October, RIL had said it has "scrupulously followed every aspect of the production sharing contract and has confined its petroleum operations within the (boundaries of its) KG-D6 Block".
It said all its wells were drilled "strictly within the KG-D6 block boundaries, as per the Development Plan approved by the relevant authorities under the PSC (production sharing contract)".
"After submission of the final report by D&M, RIL, while reserving its rights under the PSC and in law, will continue to fully cooperate with the ministry of petroleum and natural gas and any actions it takes to comply with the Delhi High Court's order," it added.
D&M was jointly appointed by ONGC and RIL to investigate and submit a report on the matter.