Government lets RIL keep extra acreage in Krishna-Godavari oil block

Mumbai: The government has allowed Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to retain extra acreage in an oil block in the Krishna-Godavari basin which it had earlier asked to surrender.

The petroleum ministry had earlier asked the Mukesh Ambani group flagship to surrender 25 per cent vacant acreage in the KG DWN-98/3 oil block on the ground that no exploratory work had been undertaken to prove the potential of oil and gas in the block. The block had been awarded to RIL few years ago.

RIL, meanwhile, is understood to have communicated to the government details of the programme it had undertaken on the block. RIL had done some exploratory work to establish that the block had the potential and it was working as per the stipulated norms, sources said.

The KG-DWN 98/3 block includes the Block D6 where Reliance made the largest discovery

RIL, meanwhile is expected to bid aggressively for the new blocks that the government is offering under NELP-6, for which the bids have to be submitted by September 15.