ONGC accuses DGH of not discharging its duty Reliance industries had in 2001 and 2007 studied hydrocarbon reservoir below sea in ONGC’s block without their knowledge
ONGC has charged upstream body DGH with not discharging its contractual and statutory duty properly
that resulted in a controversy over migration of its gas to neighbouring block of Reliance Industries.
ONGC is seeking full compensation together with 18% interest for the $1.4 billion worth of gas that has
travelled from its blocks to RIL over the last six years.
In its submission to the one-man A P Shah Committee looking into the gas dispute, Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation (ONGC) said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) had “full knowledge of the
additional data acquired by RIL and should have discharged its duty without waiting for ONGC to
complain.”
RIL had in 2001 and again in 2007 acquired seismic data to study hydrocarbon reservoir lying several
hundred metres below the sea-bed not just in its Bay of Bengal KG-D6 block but also of neighbouring
blocks of ONGC without the knowledge of the state-owned firm, it alleged.
The data acquired by RIL established that Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) gas fields in its KG-D6 block have a
considerable extension into ONGC’s adjoining blocks KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) and Godavari PML, the
state-owned firm said in its submission.
“DGH did not discharge its contractual and statutory duty and obligations properly,” it said.
As a nodal agency for monitoring exploration blocks, DGH was “in a position to find out the extension of
the gas field when RIL submitted its initial development plan (IDP) for developing D1D3 discoveries in
2004″.
ONGC said when the IDP was submitted by RIL to DGH in 2004, “it must have given entire data revealing
continuity of reservoirs across the block boundaries”.
Staffed with expert petroleum professionals with vast experience in interpretation and analysis of geo-
scientific data, “DGH should have been able to decipher from the IDP that the reservoirs are continuous
and extend into ONGC blocks”.
“Looking at the locations of the wells and their inclination towards ONGC’s reservoirs, such professionals
should have concluded the real and hidden plan of RIL, i.E. extraction of gas from ONGC’s reservoirs. The
authorities in DGH somehow overlooked such mala fide intentions which was apparent from the
approved IDP,” it said.
“It was incumbent on DGH to have exercised its powers or recommend to the government to exercise its
power under production sharing contract (PSC) and directed RIL to collaborate with ONGC for efficient
development and effective recovery of gas,” the submission said.
The acquisition of data of ONGC’s blocks and then concealment of the same besides “inaction on part of
DGH to exercise its powers vested in it have resulted in direct loss of gas and resultant loss of
resources/reserves to ONGC and to the nation”, ONGC said.
RIL has denied any wrongdoing, saying it’s “confident of demonstrating” that it had “worked absolutely
within our entitlement and there has been no impropriety on our part whatsoever”.