The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has raised a demand of $2.81 billion on production sharing contract (PSC) contractors, namely Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)., BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd., and NIKO (NECO) Ltd., RIL said in a filing with stock exchanges on Tuesday.
“The letter of demand was received by the company at 11:30 a.m. on March 3, 2025,” it said. “The company is legally advised that the Division Bench judgment and this provisional demand are unsustainable. The company is taking steps to challenge the judgment of the Division Bench of Delhi High Court. The company does not expect any liability on this account,” it said.
RIL said it had earlier won an arbitral award issued by an international arbitration panel on July 24, 2018 against the Government of India’s claim on the KG-D6 Consortium for approximately $1.55 billion, on account of alleged gas migration from ONGC’s blocks.
“A single judge of the Delhi High Court, on May 9, 2023, dismissed the GoI’s appeal challenging the arbitral award. GoI had filed an appeal before the Division Bench of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court,” it said. “Yesterday, the Division Bench reversed the judgment of the single judge. Consequent to the above-mentioned Division Bench judgment, the Ministry..has raised the demand,” it said.
Published – March 04, 2025 09:42 pm IST
