Is Reliance 'stealing' gas from ONGC's block?

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has written to the Oil Ministry seeking appointment of an international expert to assess if Reliance Industries Ltd was drawing out any of its gas in KG basin.

ONGC says four wells drilled by RIL in the eastern offshore KG-D6 blocks are within "few hundred metres" of its gas field and it fears the two may be sharing the same pool of reservoir.

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"We had raised that issue last year... some data on over-lapping has been exchanged but things have stopped and so we have appraised the ministry about the status," ONGC Director (Exploration) N K Verma said.

ONGC, which is yet to start producing from its portion of the gas field, fears RIL may have drawn some of its gas.

RIL's wells — D6-A5, D6-A9 and D6-B8, ONGC feels may be drawing gas from its gas pools called G4-2, G4-3 and D-1.

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"As these pools are extending across both the blocks, there is possibility that pools of RIL and G4 are being drained through wells drilled in KG-D6," he said.

Based on data provided by RIL, ONGC feels discoveries in two of its deep-sea blocks probably extend into RIL's block.

Verma said ONGC after studying data is confident that the two blocks have the same pool and as per established international practices the same should be apportioned between them. 

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"It (the issue) can be resolved... a third party international expert may be required to be appointed to study the data of the two fields," he said.

ONGC says RIL is seeking additional data and clarification and "somehow not willing to accept that the fields overlap."