Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Oil minister drills holes into Kejriwal’s charges

Oil minister drills holes into Kejriwal’s charges

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Nov 2, 2012   modified Modified on Nov 2, 2012
-The Times of India

A day after India Against Corruption (IAC) charged the government with selling out to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on the company's KG-D6 gas field off the Andhra coast, the oil ministry on Thursday hit back by describing the allegations as "baseless and frivolous". 

In a point-wise rebuttal to IAC charges, a ministry statement — issued after former oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar met incumbent Veerappa Moily for over an hour — said all decisions were taken "objectively without fear or favour" and that it had way back in 2010 rejected RIL's demand for a revision in gas price. On Wednesday, IAC had alleged that Aiyar was removed to pave way for a more pliable Murli Deora who would allow RIL to raise the field's capital expenditure plan. 

On IAC's charge that the gas field was given to RIL in a "sweetheart deal", the ministry said the block was given out through an open and transparent international competitive bidding process under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) approved by the government in 1997 and implemented by the BJP-led NDA government in 1999. 

"The contract under NELP was modeled after Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) prevalent in other developing countries. Commonwealth Secretariat provided consultancy during the design of the PSC document... The contract is a generic template and not specific to RIL." 

Rejecting IAC allegations that S Jaipal Reddy was removed from the ministry to facilitate RIL getting a higher price for gas, the statement said a price revision before the due date of April 1, 2014, was rejected in 2010 itself. It also made public the chronology of events and meetings for setting the $4.2 per unit price for the KG-D6 gas to show that there was no scope for a premature revision. 

RIL, the statement said, had in September, 2010, represented that they had been approached by consumers offering to buy KG-D6 gas at higher than the government fixed rate. "This was replied to on October 21, 2010, when Murli Deora was the petroleum minister, that EGoM has approved the price for five years from the date of commencement of supply and RIL was instructed to comply with the price." 

On hike in capital expenditure from $2.4 billion to $8.8 billion for the block, the ministry said its stand has been consistently to "protect the government's revenue by proper and regular monitoring of the expenditure and production". 

The ministry said the fall in output from 67 mcmd (million cubic metres per day) peak achieved in 2009-10 to 20.5 mcmd now instead of going to the targeted 81 mcmd, has been punished by disallowing "proportionate cost recovery" of over $1 billion. 

"The impact of capex and low production is on revenue sharing which is dependent on the ratio of revenue and the expenditure," the statement said. The ministry said the government had "fought vigorously" in the Supreme Court defending its rights over the natural resources in the battle between RIL and Anil Ambani-run Reliance Natural Resources Ltd. 

On postponement of an Entry Conference called by CAG to begin the second round of audit of KG-D6 spending, the ministry said, "The meeting was called at official level to discuss the procedural issues of audit by CAG and due to certain administrative inconvenience it was postponed on October 26 itself (well before the Cabinet reshuffle). The postponement of the meeting will in no way affect either the procedure or the content of the audit by CAG of these blocks," it said. 

"RIL has raised certain apprehensions regarding this audit and expressed their desire to discuss the issue further. The issues are likely to be finalized in the next few weeks," the statement said, adding that audit of oil and gas blocks was entrusted to CAG in 2007 itself and not during 2011-12. 

The ministry said the audit of certain oil and natural gas blocks was entrusted to CAG in 2007 when Deora was the oil minister. 

In November 2007, CAG was requested to conduct for special audit of production sharing contracts for eight blocks from where revenue is generated. CAG agreed to audit five blocks — Panna-Mukta, Tapti, KG-D6, Hazira and PY-3. 

"CAG initiated audit of four blocks including KG-DWN-98/3 for financial year 2006-07 and 2007-08. CAG submitted its report in August 2011, which is under examination by Public Account Committee," it said, adding the top auditor has indicated that they will audit this block in future also. 

In May, it was decided that CAG would undertake audit of KG-DWN-98/3 for 2008-09 to 2011-12. Accordingly, RIL was informed about the audit.

The Times of India, 2 November, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Oil-minister-drills-holes-into-Kejriwals-charges/articleshow/17054015.cms


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close