Oil, defence ministries told to sort out issues

The newly formed Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Tuesday asked the petroleum and defence ministries to sort out the delays in defence clearances for several oil and gas blocks and report back to the committee within a month.

After the first meeting of the committee headed by the Prime Minister to fast-track projects worth over Rs1,000 crore, information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari told reporters that the panel discussed oil and gas projects ''extensively'' and ''fruitfully'' and a ''holistic overview'' was taken to expedite clearances.

"The Cabinet Committee on Investment had its first meeting today. The oil and gas sector specifically from investment remit was discussed extensively.

"There were certain areas where certain problems were identified and therefore the ministry of petroleum and natural gas has been tasked with responsibility of sitting down with the ministry of defence and resolving some of the problems which are there with regard to 39 blocks," Tewari said after a nearly 100-minute meeting.

The first meeting of the newly-formed Cabinet Committee on Investment today failed to break the logjam over defence clearances to oil and gas activities in 39 offshore areas, including Reliance Industries' producing KG-D6 fields.

The meeting, however, left industry disappointed, with most businessmen saying that it stuck to the usual platitudes and observations and nothing concrete emerged.