Delhi NGO moves Supreme Court seeking cancellation of government-RIL pact for KG-D6 gas fields

NEW DELHI: A Delhi-based non-government organisation along with some former bureaucrats and defence officers have moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the production-sharing contract between the government and Reliance Industries for the KG-D6 gas fields, saying the company has been "squatting on potential gas-bearing assets" and "holding the nation to ransom through engineered gas shortages".

"The entire gas field allotted to the RIL consortium should be re-auctioned without allowing RIL to bid, as it has repeatedly failed to successfully explore, discover, produce gas (or) petroleum," said the public interest litigation filed by Common Cause. The consortium "has been only escalating costs, resisting audit of costs, squatting on potential gas-bearing assets without surrendering it, securing undue price increases by holding the nation to ransom through engineered gas shortages and jeopardising huge capital costs incurred by downstream projects," it added.

Former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian, former navy chief Admiral L Ramdas and former Indian Audit and Account Service officer Ramaswamy R Iyer are the other petitioners.

Reliance Industries and its minor partner NIKO Resources entered into the production-sharing contract with the National Democratic Alliance government in 2000. In the first round, RIL secured the contract for exploring the deep-water D6 block of the KG basin spread over 7,645 sq km.

The petition called for a thorough investigation into the alleged collusion between the company and officials over the government's alleged failure to take action against RIL despite repeated production shortfalls, and also for more than doubling the price of gas from April 1next year. The PIL also contested retrospective tax benefits granted to RIL and the government's failure to insist on relinquishment of these areas.

"The government first doubled and now has redoubled the gas price causing a huge loss to the country. This petition seeks a quashing of the decision, cancellation of the allotment... and a thorough investigation by an SIT/CBI into the scam which is probably one of the largest scams in independent India," the petition said.

The PIL also sought adjustment of a $7.2 billion premium collected by RIL from British Petroleum by sale of 30% stake in the oilfield towards reduction in cost of exploration and extraction of oil and gas from the fields.