EXPERT FLAYS RIL CLAIM ON POOR GAS RESERVES
Saturday, 07 September 2013 | PNS | New Delhi
While Mukesh Ambani headed Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily have claimed that geological uncertainties were the reason for natural gas production shortfall from the KG Basin, a report commissioned by Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) nails this lie.
Veteran CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta on Friday released the findings of Dr P Gopalakrishnan, a world-renowned reservoir expert, who indicted Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for its failure to attain the mandated production.
“The field has been started and produced as per expectations for a year or so, but the operator did not drill the wells as per the Field Development Plan by the end of the first year, thereby affecting a rate decline….There is no geological or reservoir constraints to achieve the recommended gas production….
"The shortfall in gas production is due to non-drilling of the adequate number of wells as per the Actual Development Plan (ADP) and therefore drilling as per ADP may be undertaken immediately," said the report of the international expert, assigned by DGH. This report was approved by Petroleum Ministry in 2011.
Interestingly, bypassing this finding, Moily recently circulated a Cabinet note claiming that "geological uncertainties" was the reason for shortfall in production of natural gas from KG Basin.
This is an attempt to provide an escape route to RIL and save it from paying a penalty of $1 billion for production shortfall and give them the revised price of $8.4 per unit, alleged Dasgupta.
"I would request you to carefully peruse Gopalakrishnan's report which has clearly nailed the lie of geological uncertainty being used by RIL. Since this report had been accepted by both DGH and the Petroleum Ministry, the Cabinet should not succumb to the devious ploy of the Petroleum Minister to reopen the issue to give undue benefit to RIL and weaken the Government's case of arbitration," said the veteran CPI leader in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.
Urging the Prime Minister to enforce fines on RIL for not producing mandated quantity of natural gas, Dasgupta pointed out that the total penalty should be around $2.4 billion.
"However, the Petroleum Ministry has not issued a fresh notice to RIL based on DGH's suggestion and the Petroleum Minister is stalling the matter. I would urge you to direct Petroleum Ministry to issue a fresh notice to RIL immediately, both for last year and the current year," said Dasgupta.
Petroleum Ministry letting RIL off the hook, says Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, September 3, 2013
Communist Party of India MP Gurudas Dasgupta on Monday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointing to fresh attempts by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry to allow Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to get away on “technical grounds” from supplying the shortfall in the quantity of gas it had contracted to produce from the KG D6 block, at the old rate of $4.2 mbtu.
In his letter to Dr. Singh, the CPI MP has alleged that a new note was being circulated in the Petroleum Ministry to the effect that RIL should not get revised price on gas till the reasons for the shortfall in the output from KG D6 were ascertained. However, the catch in the note is that the Ministry has proposed that if it (Petroleum Ministry) reaches the conclusion that the shortfall was due to geological difficulties, then RIL would get the benefit of price increase. The Finance Ministry had asked the Petroleum Ministry to examine the issue of pricing the shortfall in gas production from KG D6 at the old rate of $4.2 mbtu but the Petroleum Minister had categorically rejected the suggestion.
“The formulation of this note has again exposed the duplicity of the Petroleum Ministry and the Minister itself. The government has consistently rejected the contention of RIL that the shortfall is due to geological difficulty. The Director-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had written seven letters between December 2010 and April 2011 pointing out the lapses on the part of RIL and rejecting its contention of geological uncertainty. The management committee meeting on April 17, 2011 again reiterated this point. The same conclusion was reached by one-man expert committee of Dr. P. Gopalakrishnan, who submitted his report to the Ministry in April 2011. The Petroleum Ministry, on several occasions in Parliament, has rejected the claim of RIL regarding geological uncertainty,” he stated.
“Bid to dilute stance”
“Trying to re-open this issue, which had been conclusively settled by the previous Petroleum Minister, is a thinly disguised attempt to dilute the earlier stand of the government that the present Petroleum Minister has deliberately stalled the arbitration proceedings for the recovery of penalty of $1.5 billion. By trying to reverse the earlier view of the government, the Minister is trying to weaken the arbitration proceedings and give an alibi to RIL to get away with its grave breach of the production sharing contract (PSC). The Petroleum Minister has not bothered to consult important stakeholders like the Fertilizers and Power Ministries which further shows the malafides behind the move,’’ he added.
“I would request the government to insist that RIL supply the shortfall quantity at the old rates to ensure that its sinister design of deliberately reducing production does not result in windfall profits for RIL. I would also request that the government reconsider the decision to raise the prices of natural gas and keep it in abeyance until these issues are openly debated with all the stakeholders,” the letter concludes.
“Government should insist that RIL supply the shortfall in quantity at the old rate”
“This report has exposed the dubious designs of those sitting in the Petroleum Ministry to give undue benefit to RIL
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kg-output-fell-as-ril-didnt-drill-wells-gas-panel-found/article5101623.ece
Published: September 7, 2013 02:56 IST | Updated: September 7, 2013 03:13 IST
KG output fell as RIL didn’t drill wells, gas panel found
In findings that lend weight to the charge that Reliance Industries Ltd. deliberately curtailed production from its KG basin gasfields because it felt gas prices were too low, a key technical report submitted to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry in 2011 had blamed the fall in output on the failure of the Mukesh Ambani-owned company to drill an adequate number of wells as per the Approved Development Plan (ADP).
Commissioned by the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the 13-page report, ‘Analysis of well and pools performance: D1 & D3 fields, KG Basin (RIL),’ was prepared by a one-man committee headed by internationally renowned reservoir expert P. Gopalakrishanan.
“The shortfall in gas production is due to non-drilling of the adequate number of wells as per ADP, and therefore drilling as per the ADP may be undertaken immediately,” notes the report, a copy of which is with The Hindu. “The well completion policy, and tubing sizes may be re-looked to optimize the wells and the reservoir areas each one targets. Delays in commissioning additional producers would trigger water drive in the reservoir and consequent reduction of the ultimate recovery as a result of water encroachment as well as permanent loss of some of the gas reserves,” the report states.
Surprisingly, the report was kept under wraps for more than two years by the Ministry. And though its findings are categorical, the Ministry continues to regard as open-ended the question of why RIL has not managed to produce the contracted volume of gas from its KG basin operations.
Referring to the production performance of the fields, the Gopalakrishnan committee states: “We have seen that the behaviour of the field during the first year was very much as per our expectations. After that period, wells were not introduced into the system as per the plan, whereby the gas rate declined. Pressure decline was also slowed down as a result of the aquifer support. All these are quite expected from the initial reservoir stimulation study.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kg-output-fell-as-ril-didnt-drill-wells-gas-panel-found/article5101623.ece