The detention of officials for allegedly leaking confidential government documents to private companies might have come as a shock to many but energy company executives are not surprised. This "exchange of information" is as old as the industry itself, said senior officials from the energy sector.
"I am not surprised by this move on the government's part. This has happened way too late, in my opinion. It is an open secret that sensitive information could be leaked and bought at as less as Rs 10 a page," said a senior official a state-run exploration and production company. "We are glad that this is finally happened. But we hope this is not a one-off development," said the chief executive officer of a private exploration and production company.
A board member from a major exploration and production company said state-run entities are largely "targeted" through such exchange of information which in many cases is used to find details of their engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts.
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Under an EPC contract, the contractor is awarded the mandate to design the installation; procure necessary materials and build the project, either directly or by a third party.
Companies said details like the rigs to be hired, the rate at which they would be hired, the bidding of contracts and their rates etc were in many cases made public and leaked to "interested parties".
"We had complained a number of times to the ministry of petroleum about our commercial and EPC details being leaked. Many companies would use it to alter their bids. Our internal discussions were also made public," said the director from one of the exploration and production companies. An official from an oil marketing company said, information about pricing of products were also being leaked regularly.
