Make KG-D6 records available to CAG, Govt tells Reliance
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The Oil Ministry on Tuesday asked Reliance Industries to share its records on the KG-D6 oilfield with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for faster approval of four other blocks off the eastern seaboard of India.
The statement follows a meeting last week at which representatives of Reliance Industries and British oil major BP met with Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy last week to make a representation for speedy approvals for four oil & gas blocks in the Krishna-Godavari (KG-D6) and Cauvery (NEC-25) basins.
“The Contractors were also informed that denial of access to records to the CAG was adversely commented upon in previous audit by the CAG. It was also brought to their notice that CAG recommended withholding of sanction to work plans and budgets if access to records is denied to CAG,” the Ministry statement said. The CAG is a government watchdog body that keeps an eye on government finances.
The ministry added that it has asked the companies to make all the records and accounts of the KG D6 block available to the Comptroller and Auditor General “as provided for in the Production Sharing Contract”.
“It was … agreed that quicker approvals for two blocks in the Cauvery Basin as per the extant Government Policy would be given,” a Ministry statement said.
According to sources, who declined to be named, RIL said that in absence of approvals from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, gas production form KG-D6 would continue to fall in absence of speedy approvals and could come to a standstill by 2015.
Calls to an RIL spokesperson remained unanswered.
A ministry official present at the meeting said that KG-D6 output has dropped below 30 million units/per day this week and will go down to 20 million units/day next year. Fresh approvals, however, can add 0.8 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas from KG-D6, sources said.
On its part, ministry officials told the representatives that both firms have not been cooperating with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and that that was one of the main reasons for holding up investment approvals for the Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery blocks.
In the meeting, Reddy said that all issues would be recommended to the concerned authorities on issues related to certain wells in the NEC-25 and KG-D6 blocks.
The minister agreed to consider extension of appraisal period to facilitate the declaration of commerciality at an early date. It was also agreed that quicker approvals for two blocks in the Cauvery Basin as per the extant Government Policy would be given.
Sources added that the Management Committee (MC), which is headed by Petroleum Ministry’s technical arm Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH), has not approved revised field development plan for MA oilfield in KGD-6 block, apart from not recognising at least three gas discoveries in the block. Officials present in the meeting recalled that the BP representative had said that the MC is supposed to meet at least once a quarter but the request of the operators to convene such meetings has not been agreed to by the government.