HC asks government to take decision on KG basin issue

The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the central government to take a decision, within six months of receiving the report of an expert panel set up on the dispute between state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Reliance Industries (RIL) over their Krishna Godavari basin gas fields being interconnected.

Justice R.S. Endlaw disposed of the plea of ONGC asking the central government to take a decision while asking all the parties involved in the matter to cooperate with the independent international expert agency, DeGolyer & MacNaughton.

According to ONGC, gas discoveries in its G4 and KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) blocks in the eastern offshore, extend into RIL's KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block. It had moved the high court alleging RIL has extracted gas upto 18 billion cubic meters from its blocks resulting in loss of several thousand crores of rupees.

ONGC claims three wells drilled by RIL on the boundary of the KG-D6 block are within a few hundred meters of its gas fields, while RIL disputes this. Both companies have presented data in support of their claims.