PAC Questions Petroleum Ministry On Why RIL Was Given The Entire KG-D6 Block

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has asked the Petroleum Ministry to explain why Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) was allowed to retain the entire contract area of KG-DWN-98/3 block (commonly known as KG-D6). The decision in this regard was taken by the UPA government in February 2009.

As per Article 4.1 of the production-sharing contract (PSC), 25% of the block area needs to be surrendered after the first phase of exploration. The contractor is allowed to keep only the ‘discovery area’ from the second phase. But RIL was allowed to retain the entire area in violation of this provision.

According to the Article 1.39 of the PSC, the discovery area means “that part of the contract area about which, based on discovery and results obtained from a well or wells drilled in such part, the contractor is of the opinion that petroleum exists and likely to be produced in commercial quantities.”

The Petroleum Ministry is preparing its reply to be placed before the PAC.