Anil Ambani group company RNRL has now alleged that upstream oil and gas regulator V K Sibal is acting at the behest of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in exchange for undue favours and sought intervention of the Supreme Court in a petition filed today.
Citing news reports and the statements by the Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), RNRL said: “It appears that V K Sibal has been acting at the behest of RIL and in exchange of undue favours has been doing favours to/accommodating RIL including by way of approving capital expenditure of over Rs 40,000 crore.
“It is further submitted that... Sibal... made a statement that the estimated cost per mmBtu of the gas produced by RIL at the Krishna-Godavari D6 basin is $1.28 per mmBtu.” RNRL, which is fighting RIL over supply of gas, filed a petition before the apex court, contending that the DGH, as also the oil ministry had wrongly approved the increase in capital expenditure.
DGH has been accused by RNRL in the past of approving an increase in RIL’s capital expenditure on the D6 exploration block of the Krishna-Godavari basin from $2.4 billion (Rs11,400 crore) to $8.8 billion. This block is where RIL made one of the biggest discoveries of gas in India.
