 "Keeping KG alive took Rs 4.5k cr for RIL, BP, Niko")
A report by Justice A P Shah commission confirmed on Wednesday that there was a migration of gas from state-run ONGC's block in Krishna Godavari basin to the adjacent fields owned by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd.
The one-man panel's report stands close to the findings of the report submitted by the US-based consultant DeGolyer and MacNaughton (D&M) in November 2015, which stated that about 11.122 billion cubic meters of natural gas worth about Rs 11,000 crore had migrated to the RIL fields from ONGC's idle fields.
"Shah panel has submitted its report today. It confirms that there was a migration of gas from ONGC's fields to RIL's. We will look into its recommendations of the report and will take a call on it by September 30," said petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He added that the panel also looked into the economic and legal aspects of migration. The Government may take a call on the compensation to ONGC by RIL after studying the report.
The mandate of the panel was to quantify the amount of gas, which migrated from ONGC field and also recommend actions to be taken based on that. It was also set to look into any acts of "omissions and commission" by any of the stakeholders. Its terms of reference also included to "quantify unfair enrichment if any" by RIL and to recommend ways to compensate ONGC. "I have submitted a comprehensive report on the issue of gas migration. Now, it is up to the government to take a final call on the panel's recommendations," Shah said, after submitting the report to the minister.
The Shah panel, which was set up on December 15, 2015, had got an extension for one month after it failed to meet the deadline on July 31.
This was the second extension that the panel had got, as the initial deadline was March 31. This delay happened after RIL and its partner Niko Resources questioned the constitution of the panel and declined to participate in its proceedings. Later, both companies agreed to join the inquiry committee in February.
According to ONGC, RIL has benefited from gas flow between their adjacent fields during the 2009-13 period. It was in 2013 that ONGC came out with the claim that RIL intentionally drilled wells close to its blocks, through which gas migrated. D&M was appointed by both RIL and ONGC to study on the issue.
As per D&M report, the reservoirs in ONGC's KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) and the Godavari-PML are connected with Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1 & D3)
field located in the KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) Block of RIL. The estimates of ONGC loss was based on a gas price of $4.2 per million metric British thermal unit.
D&M states that out of the 58.68 billion cubic meter of gas produced from KG-D6 block since April 1, 2009, 8.981 bcm could have migrated from ONGC fields. RIL's D1 and D3 fields had an estimated reserves of 80.697 bcm in place, while state-run ONGC's Godavari-PML had 14.209 bcm of reserves and KG-D5 another 11.856 bcm.
