Common Cause, an NGO, has approached the Supreme Court seeking to restrain the Centre from amending production sharing contracts (PSCs) with Reliance Industries ? as proposed in the draft note to the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) ? and also ask the company to relinquish the oil and gas fields, including the gas-rich D29 to 31 fields of the KG basin block.
The NGO has alleged that despite the matter being sub judice and poll code being in force, the Centre moved the draft note on March 31 to amend the PSC to allow Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries to retain the lucrative oil and gas fields. It said this would benefit RIL to the tune of $14 billion.
According to the application filed through counsel Prashant Bhushan, the CCEA note itself mentions the fields Reliance would be entitled to retain consequent to the amendment of PSCs are valued at $1.45 billion at the current price of gas of $4.2/mmbtu, and if the price is doubled, the value of the largesse proposed to be granted to the firm would be almost $3 billion.
The CCEA note also states that the amendment will apply to other PSCs with Reliance, where recoverable reserves are of the order of 1,300 bcf. This would mean a further benefit to RIL of $5.46 billion at current prices and of almost $11 billion at the revised price of $8.4/mmbtu. Thus, a whopping benefit of $14 billion is illegitimately sought to be conferred on Reliance, the application added.