Report on ONGC-RIL gas row to be submitted on Aug 31

The Justice AP Shah Committee looking into the dispute between Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) regarding the flow of gas between their adjacent fields in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin will submit its report to oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The Justice AP Shah Committee looking into the dispute between Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) regarding the flow of gas between their adjacent fields in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin will submit its report to oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

ONGC claims that RIL has benefited from gas flow between their adjacent fields in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin between 2009-13. (REUTERS)

The oil ministry will take a call on when to make the contents of the report public, said the source quoted above on condition of anonymity.

ONGC claims that RIL has benefited from gas flow between their fields between 2009-13.

RIL has been maintaining that it has drilled wells only within its block, as approved by the regulatory authority, and was not guilty of any wrongdoing.

The committee was set up on December 15, 2015, as ordered by the Delhi High Court after hearing ONGC’s petition alleging that the RIL consortium was benefitting from the gas flow.

The committee is mandated to “quantify unfair enrichment if any” by RIL and to recommend ways to compensate ONGC and the government after independent American consultant DeGoyler and MacNaughton (D&M) reported that the fields managed by the two companies shared the same reservoir, leading to migration of gas from ONGC’s field to RIL’s.