Govt Appeals In Delhi HC Against Order In RIL Gas Dispute

Centre lodged a petition challenging a Delhi high court ruling that favoured Reliance Industries (RIL) in a gas dispute within the Krishna Godavari Basin on Thursday.

The court has requested RIL to submit a response, according to a knowledgeable legal representative. A division bench of the Delhi High Court has scheduled a hearing on 12 February. The dispute originated in 2013 when the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) wrote to the director general of hydrocarbons, alleging the presence of 'lateral continuity' of gas reservoirs between the Reliance block and the adjoining blocks allocated to ONGC.

This implied that the gas reservoirs of the Reliance block and the ONGC blocks seemed to be interconnected, with the potential migration of gas between the two blocks. Following confirmation by an independent consultant, the ministry sought USD 1.55 billion from RIL.

Reliance and its partners BP Plc and Niko Resources filed an arbitration notice against the government in November 2016 after the government imposed a USD1.55 billion fine on the consortium for selling gas that migrated from state-owned ONGC’s fields in the east coast Krishna-Godavari basin.

The company pursued arbitration, and a ruling was pronounced by an international tribunal in favour of Reliance Industries Ltd and its international partners in a dispute over gas migration from fields operated by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. 

In May, while endorsing the arbitral tribunal's 2018 decision, a bench of the high court led by Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani stated: "...the perspective adopted by the arbitral tribunal is unquestionably a plausible one that does not necessitate any interference." Challenging the judgment of the Single Bench, the Centre has now filed a petition on a division bench of the Delhi High Court and it has agreed to hear the matter on 12 February.