RIL should pay for illegally extracting gas: CPI(M)

Latching onto the observations of the AP Shah committee on compensation Reliance Industries Limited should pay to ONGC for producing the state-run firm's gas, the CPI(M) today demanded the Centre "fully recover" cost of the volume of gas the private player "illegally" migrated to Krishna Godavari basin.
"The RIL should return the cost of the gas that it was not entitled to and had illegally extracted for commercial gains.
"The Politburo demands that on the basis of the Committee report, this amount that is legitimately due to the exchequer must be fully recovered from the RIL. Additionally, the RIL should be penalised for this illegal act, in accordance with our laws," the CPI(M) said in a statement.

The Justice AP Shah Committee report on the compensation from Reliance Industries Ltd regarding the Godavari-KG Basin natural gas fields was submitted on August 31.
As much as 11.122 billion cubic metres of ONGC gas had migrated from its Godavari-PML and KG-DWN-98/2 blocks to adjoining KG-D6 of RIL between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2015. At prevailing prices, the gas was worth Rs 11,000 crore.
While ONGC's reservoirs have almost emptied, RIL continues to produce gas from D1&D3 fields in KG-D6 block, some of it being of ONGC.