BP CEO, Ambani meet oil minister

BP Plc Chief Executive Bob Dudley and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani today met Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily to voice concerns over being penalised twice for gas output from their KG-D6 fields not matching targets.

Dudley, whose company last year made the largest foreign direct investment in the oil sector, followed it up with a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Ambani was not present when Dudley met Chidambaram. Moily said issues surrounding KG-D6 were discussed, while Dudley emphasised

that his company was committed to staying invested in the country despite regulatory uncertainties.

Dudley's third visit to India this year comes at a time when the Oil Ministry, at the insistence of Finance Ministry, is seeking to deny his company and its partner RIL a new gas price for producing less natural gas than projected.

This punishment is on top of $1.8 billion penalty that is already being imposed on them.

Also, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons is seeking to strip them off 8 gas discoveries holding 1.15 trillion cubic feet of reserves worth USD 14 billion from their eastern offshore KG-D6 block.