Centre imposes Rs.10,000 crore penalty on RIL, partners

The Centre has fined Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and its partners BP and Niko nearly slapped a nearly Rs.10,000 crores for pumping out gas that flowed to the Krishna Godavari-D6 Block from an adjoining field owned by ONGC.

Reliance and its partners have been given a month to respond to the notice issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

According to reports, all three partners sought 1.47 billion dollars for producing nearly 338 million British thermal unit in seven years ended March this year.

After deducting about 72 million dollars royalty paid on the gas produced and adding an interest at the rate of Libor plus 2% totaling nearly 150 million dollars, a total demand of 1.55 billion dollars was made on RIL, BP and Niko.

RIL said, it will issue a notice of arbitration against what it called was a globally unprecedented and arbitrary decision.It said it carried out its activities within the boundaries of the block it operates and abided by the law.