No favour from govt in KG basin: RIL to SC

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Wednesday asserted in the Supreme Court that it did not receive any favour from the government in the contract for exploration of oil and gas from Krishna-Godavari basin.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for RIL, denied allegations of favour and collusion and said the company was in dispute with the government on several issues.

"Far from being a favour to the contractor (RIL), the government has denied contractor its contractual rights under the PSC (production sharing contract)," he submitted before a three-bench headed by Justice B S Chauhan.

Submitting that economic decisions by the government should not be judicially reviewed, the senior advocate said the company itself has some reservation about Rangarajan Committee recommendations which devised the formula for gas pricing.

The RIL submitted that the PSC along with other documents shows that KG basin's gas price is not to be based on costs and is based upon a market determined price.

While arguing the matter for RIL, Salve explained the nitty gritty of the gas exploration with a scale model of KG Basin -D6 gas field.

He was also critical of the CAG report on KG-D6 basin which according to him was based on incomplete information.

The apex court had on March 11 commenced the hearing on the PILs filed by senior CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta and NGO, Common Cause, which have sought imposition of penalty on private parties for failure to adhere to commitments.

The petitioners have also sought a direction for a thorough audit by CAG of the working of the production-sharing contract (PSC) governing KG block, gold plating by RIL, "underproduction" by RIL and all related issues.

The NGO has also filed an application, seeking direction to the Centre not to go ahead with its decision to double the gas price.

RIL had refuted allegation of extraneous consideration for the increase in the gas price from 4.2 dollar to 8.4 dollar per mmbtu for the gas taken from the existing fields like KG D-6 basin.

During the hearing, the Centre had said that on Election Commission's directive, the hike in the price has been kept on hold.