Govt notice to RIL: Five KG-D6 discoveries are deemed relinquished says Oil Secretary

NEW DELHI: The government formally informed Reliance Industries on Wednesday that five of its controversial discoveries worth $6.76 billion in the prolific KG-D6 block are “deemed relinquished”, Oil Secretary Vivek Rae said.

“For other three discoveries, let’s see how can we move forward,” Rae told reporters.

He said the decision was taken because RIL did not adhere to the prescribed timelines for appraisal, declaration of commerciality and field development plan. “It was not appropriate to relax contractual provisions for one particular operator,” Rae said.

Oil Minister Veerappa Moily had recently directed officials to take back the five discoveries containing an estimated of 805 billion cubic feet of gas, but he had allowed RIL to retain three other fields containing gas worth $2.9 billion at the revised gas price, striking a middle path after the directorate general of hydrocarbons recommended that all eight fields should be relinquished. The minister accepted Reliance’s argument that a particular type of appraisal was initially not mandatory.