India on Tuesday opened its largest oil and gas bid round, offering 25 blocks covering 1.91 lakh square kilometers mostly in offshore area, as the government looks to boost domestic production to cut imports and help energy security. Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched the 10th bid round under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) at the India Energy Week (IEW) in Mumbai.
India's biggest oil and gas bid round attracted four bidders that included state-owned ONGC and OIL and private sector Vedanta Ltd, with most blocks getting just two bids, according to Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). The OALP-IX bid round, where 28 blocks or areas spread over 1.36 lakh square kilometre were offered for finding and producing oil and gas, for the first time saw Reliance Industries Ltd-bp plc combine bidding together with ONGC for one block in Gujarat offshore.
The Delhi high court has rejected a government challenge to an arbitration panel award that had ruled in favour of Reliance Industries Ltd in a dispute over gas migration from fields operated by state-owned ONGC in the KG basin. The government had slapped a provisional penalty of $1.55 billion on Reliance for "unjust enrichment" from gas migrating from the ONGC-operated KG-D5 block to the private firm's adjoining KG-D6 area. It had sought $175 million in additional profit petroleum from Reliance and its UK partner BP Plc.
The Delhi high court (HC) division Bench on Thursday sought a response from Reliance Industries (RIL) and others regarding the government's appeal against the Mukesh Ambani-owned conglomerate and others for fraudulently and unjustly enriching themselves by draining gas from their deposits, amounting to over $1.5 billion. The Centre had appealed against the single-judge Bench order of the Delhi HC on May 9, which had dismissed its petition. Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani had upheld the international arbitration award of July 24, 2018, in favour of the RIL-led consortium. The consortium includes UK-based BP Plc and Niko Resources of Canada.
Pant, a 1991-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Rajasthan cadre, is currently secretary in the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways.
GX Technology case led to police cases against Sibal.
In all, Reliance has a stake in 34 exploration blocks in the country.
The FIR by the ACB was registered a day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the agency has been told to probe their alleged collusion over hike in prices of natural gas from KG basin.
The Oil Ministry, which had been sitting on the proposal for over a year, wrote to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons earlier this week saying that it has been decided to permit exploration in already producing oil and gas fields, sources privy to the development said.
Directorate General of Hydrocarbons Director General Rajiv Nayan Choubey did not take calls made for comments.
RIL had in February last year submitted a revised field development plan for the MA oilfield, which has been producing crude oil since September 2008.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons wants the government to get a share of the $0.135 per million British thermal units marketing margin RIL charges over and above the government approved gas price of $4.205, sources privy to the development said.
Amidst controversy over fall in output from RIL's KG-D6 gas fields, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) on Wednesday appeared to favour scrapping the present system of contracts and instead asking firms to bid for the share of oil and gas they can offer to the government.
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had recommended to the ministry that RIL be asked to give up 86% of its KG-D6 gas block area
Upstream regulator DGH has suggested that the $1.235-billion investment of Reliance Industries should be disallowed over the Mukesh Ambani-run firm's failure to adhere to prestated drilling and gas production targets, but the oil ministry is yet to agree on the numbers.
RIL produced a total of 14.83 mmscmd from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) gas fields and MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in Bay of Bengal in the week ended May 26, according to a status report of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.
RIL on April 2 shut the well A1 on the main producing fields of Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) in Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 for "reservoir build-up study," according to a status report of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.
RIL produced a total of 22.04 mmscmd of gas from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields and MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in Bay of Bengal in the week ended December 30, 2012, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons said in a production status report to the Oil Ministry.
It is shut due to high water and sand ingress and it awaits regulatory nod to carry out urgent workover.
The Madhya Pradesh directorate general of Hydrocarbons has granted Petroleum Exploration Licence to ADAG for exploration of CBM from Sohagpur (north) block in Shahdol district on August 11, official sources said in Bhopal on Thursday.
Reliance Industries was to relinquish 25 per cent of the gas-bearing KG-D6 block in 2004 and a similar area in 2006 but the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, which was at that time headed by V K Sibal, concluded that hydrocarbon prospectivity "extends over entire block and hence no block area needed to be relinquished."
Concerned over fall in output at India's biggest gas field, oil regulator DGH has sent a fact finding mission to Reliance Industries-operated KG-D6 fields to ascertain reasons for the decline in production.
The report, submitted to the government last week, says the slow pace of field development is the reason production has fallen to 50 million standard cubic metres a day (mscmd) from a peak of 60 mscmd last year.
Reliance had in December, 2009, submitted to the regulator an optimised development plan for four satellite gas fields around the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields in the KG-DWN-98/3, or KG-D6, block.
The ministry has attributed the fall in output to non-fulfilment of RIL's commitment to drill 22 wells in the field.
In a draft audit report on the KG-DWN-98/3, or KG-D6, block, the Comptroller and Auditor General said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons allowed Reliance to hike capital expenditure for developing Dhirubhai-1 and 3, the largest of 18 gas finds in the block, by 117 per cent.
Reliance ADA Group challenged Sibal to bring on record anything to support his 'wild allegations,' while adding that it would file criminal proceedings against DGH.
Reliance Industries has informed oil regulator DGH that four smaller gas finds surrounding the D-1 and D-3 fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin can be commercially exploited.
Clashing over Reliance Industries's gas field cost, an Anil Ambani group firm on Wednesday questioned the credibility of audits commissioned by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon, evoking sharp protest from the regulator.
Reliance Industries, which has seen output from its prolific KG-D6 fields fall by 15 per cent, can raise production to 67-68 million cubic metres of gas a day by next month if it can drill additional wells.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has told oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) that its KG basin block may hold about 3 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves from which it plans to produce 25-30 million unit a day by 2016.
Although he denied any wrongdoing, Sibal was forced to revert to Oil India on October 31 as group general manager -- a rank which he held prior to becoming the director general of directorate general of Hydrocarbons.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) is expected to complete the special audit of the accounts of KG Basin oil and gas fields of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) by February next year, a top official said.
The oil and gas industry regulator has never been far from controversy during his five-year tenure.
A CBI team on Friday visited office of oil regulator V K Sibal to check records following charges of his receiving favours from Mukesh Ambani-led RIL to approve an inflated expenditure for gas field, a charge denied by him.
It is now widely accepted that the faith placed in independent directors, to improve the standards of corporate governance, has often been misplaced. Most of them, and not just in the case of Satyam Computers, tend to go along with the promoters who appoint them.
Development plan for K-G basin runs for 12 years, so can't supply to RNRL for 17 years, says RIL.
The 28 discoveries include Charada structure and Matar field in Cambay basin (Gujarat) and YSAF in KG basin (off Andhra Pradesh coast), the company said. The discoveries made in FY'09 have been notified to the directorate general of hydrocarbons.
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