RIL-BP meet Moily; seek approvals for investments worth $5 bn

British Prime Minister David Cameron flanked by Mukesh Ambani and Bob Dudley Chief Executive BP group pose for pictures at the Chatrapati Shivaji Museum in Mumbai on Feb. 18, 2013.

The Chief executive of British Petroleum group, Bob Dudley and Reliance Industries chairman, Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday met the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Veerappa Moily and sought approvals for KG D6 block enhancement plan which entails an investment of $5 billion and developing of around 4 trillion cubic feet of gas.

During their meeting, both BP and RIL said they were planning to invest in a series of projects to develop around 4 trillion cubic feet of discovered natural gas resources from the block. This plan, when implemented, would entail a potential total investment in excess of $5 billion over the next three to five years, they pointed out. They updated the Minister of their joint future plans in India, including the KG D6 block enhancement plan designed to increase production from the block, an official statement issued by BP said.

The issue of audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) also reportedly came up for discussion and RIL pointed out to the written assurance given by the government that no performance audit would be carried out and only audit under Article 1.9 of production sharing contract (PSC) would be done. RIL is understood to have raised concerns over the demand by CAG to seek across the board access to various records, financial statements and SAP systems of the company and sought the intervention of Mr. Moily in the matter.

“We will do the needful to fast track these projects and help them attain economic viability,” the release quoted Mr. Moily has having told both Mr. Dudley and Mr. Ambani on their request to expedite approvals.

Further the statement said Mr. Ambani also told Mr. Moily that the BP and RIL partnership is focused on finding more hydrocarbons and addressing the complexities of the geology along the East Coast of India.

The statement said both RIL and BP were confident that development of the existing discoveries, together with exploration prospects in KG D6 has the potential to enhance domestic production significantly. The JV has already submitted to the government for approval the field development plan for the R-Series project. This and other projects to add incremental production from 2017 and beyond, it said.