Ambani blinks, drops gas price challenge against government

New Delhi, June 23 

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and its British partner BP plc have withdrawn a legal challenge they had mounted three years ago against the government over delay in gas price revision.

The withdrawal of the arbitration will now entitle the two companies to marketing and pricing freedom on the natural gas they produce from newer fields in the deepsea at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore by 2022.

Sources said the two companies moved to withdraw the international arbitration before Ambani and BP CEO Bob Dudley met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 15 morning. They completed the process within days.

That day, Ambani and Dudley, in a rare press appearance, announced restarting the investment cycle in their Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 block after eight years hiatus by taking up of three sets of deepsea discoveries for development at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore.

Dudley had in his previous meeting with Modi in January 2015 made a fervent pitch for extending the gas price premium to existing undeveloped gas fields in difficult areas like deepsea instead of restricting them to future finds as had been announced in an October 18, 2014 decision.

The government agreed to his suggestion but made it conditional upon companies withdrawing any legal proceedings or arbitration challenging government’s gas pricing policy.

While RIL was non-committal, BP made its intentions clear within days of the March 10, 2016 decision.

BP India spokesperson had on March 12 stated that the “decision by the government on marketing including pricing freedom for new production from deep, ultra-deep water and high-pressure, high-temperature areas provides clarity to end the pending gas pricing dispute.”

And today, the spokesperson confirmed that the legal challenge has indeed been withdrawn. “Yes, the ‘gas price’ arbitration has already been withdrawn,” the spokesperson said. An email sent to RIL remained unanswered. — PTI