An inter-ministerial panel has been set up to find a solution to the dispute between the Ministries of Coal and Petroleum on simultaneous extraction of gas and coal.

The panel, headed by Member Planning Commission, Mr B. K. Chaturvedi, is expected to meet on May 16. Official sources said that the Petroleum Ministry wanted coal mine methane (CMM) extraction to be done on the lines of coal bed methane (CBM).
Extraction process

NEW DELHI: The oil ministry plans to take coal bed methane (CBM) pricing matters to a ministerial panel as it sees a wide gap between prices offered by customers to Reliance Industries and Essar, a move that can further delay approvals, government and industry officials said. "Reliance CBM price is about three times more than that of Essar. The ministry is in a fix due to the wide variation even though both companies have followed laid down rules.

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary panel has asked oil ministry and DGH to closely monitor Reliance Industries' flagging KG-D6 gas fields saying any production decline should be supported by proper evaluation. RIL's KG-D6 fields have seen output drop by about 45% to less than 34 million standard cubic meters per day in the past two years.

Having failed to get a response from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas for nearly five months, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Wednesday filed a plea in the Supreme Court to seek the appointment of an arbitrator in its dispute over the D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

According to a spokesperson, the company has sought an order appointing an arbitrator under section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act and article 33.5 of the production-sharing contract. “We had served a notice on the government in November 2011. We have approached the Supreme Court since we did not get any response,” he said.

Seeks appointment of arbitrator on behalf of oilmin to settle dispute
OUR BUREAU NEW DELHI

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and partner BP Plc have won approval from the government to prepare a plan to develop a natural gas discovery in the Bay of Bengal, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

A panel headed by the country’s oil and gas regulator recognised the R1 deposit as being commercially viable at a meeting held two weeks ago, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. The discovery is part of a cluster known as the R-Series that billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance and BP plan to jointly develop.

The regulatory panel overseeing the performance of Reliance Industries’ prestigious D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin on Tuesday approved the company’s plan to develop four satellite fields at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. The oil and gas major is keen to develop the fields around their producing D1 and D3 fields in the D6 block as resources are scattered in different groupings.

Has deferred decision on the critical issue of allowing the company to fully recover previous costs
The oil ministry plans to impose cost limits on the development of new KG Basin gas fields by Reliance Industries, and has deferred its decision on the critical issue of allowing the company to fully recover previous costs, giving a new turn to the choppy relationship between the conglomerate and the government.

Reliance Industries (RIL) has told the government that already declining production at its trophy asset, the D6 block in offshore Andhra Pradesh, could plummet drastically if its investment plans are not approved forthwith.