TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The government has imposed a new penalty of USD 264 million (about Rs 1,700 crore) on Reliance Industries Ltd and its partners for producing less than the targeted natural gas from eastern offshore KG-D6 fields in 2015-16.
The total penalty now, which is in the form of disallowing recovery of cost incurred for missing the target during six years beginning April 1, 2010, stands at USD 3.02 billion, an oil ministry official said.
The Production Sharing Contract (PSC) allows RIL and its partners BP Plc of the UK and Canada’s Niko Resources to deduct all capital and operating expenses from the sale of gas before sharing profit with the government.
Disallowing costs will result in government’s profit share rising. The government has claimed an additional USD 175 million as its profit share after the cost disallowance, the official said.
Gas production from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas field in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block was supposed to be 80 million standard cubic meters per day but actual production was only 35.33 mmscmd in 2011-12, 20.88 mmscmd in 2012-13 and 9.77 mmscmd in 2013-14. The output has continued to drop in the subsequent years and is now below 4 mmscmd.
