The Oil Ministry has sent a notice to RIL seeking USD 1.55 billion compensation, sources privy to the development said.
The Justice A P Shah Committee had in a report presented to Oil Ministry on August 30 opined that RIL should pay the government for the natural gas it has drawn from an adjacent block of ONGC in the KG basin of the Bay of Bengal in the past seven years.
"RIL's action of producing and selling gas migrated from ONGC block is unjust enrichment," the report said, adding that over 11 billion cubic metres of gas had flowed from the ONGC block to RIL's fields between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2015. Of this, RIL has already produced about 9 bcm.
The panel, however, said the compensation should go to the government and not ONGC.
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While ONGC's reservoirs have almost emptied, RIL continues to produce gas from D1&D3 fields in KG-D6 block, some of it belonging to ONGC.
Shah committee had relied on report of independent consultant D&M to make its case.
D&M had in its November 2015 report indicated that as on March 31, 2015, 44.32 per cent of the gas initially in place in Godavari PML and 34.71 per cent in KG-DWN-98/2 (both of ONGC) had migrated to KG-D6 of RIL. The report projected a higher proportion of gas migration and its production through RIL operated KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) block by the end of 2019.
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