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| Edited By: K V Ramana |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 16, 2018, 05:27 AM IST
In a twist in the spat with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on supply of gas produced by the industry major in the Krishna Godavari basin, the Andhra Pradesh government has expressed full satisfaction over the way RIL has been ensuring the supplies.
In a review meeting with the officials on the KG gas row, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy expressed satisfaction and hoped that the company would continue to supply gas to all the upcoming projects as well.
“There is no problem with the supplies as of now. The requirement in the state is being met by Reliance.” D A Somayajulu, economic advisor to the AP government, told reporters after the chief minister’s review meeting.
According to him, the state needed about 16 mmscmd of gas. ONGC and GAIL together are able to supply about 6 mmscmd leaving the gap of about 10 mmscmd. The empowered group of ministers (eGoM) had allocated about 7.7 mmscmd of gas to meet the state’s requirements and gave an elbow room of about 2.3 mmscmd depending on the offtake of gas from Reliance. However, Somayajulu said Reliance has been supplying the entire 10 mmscmd for now.
The state government had earlier argued that the state should be allocated a part of the gas as its share. However, Reliance has not been reacting to the state’s demand. Following this, Y S R had written to the prime minister’s office for intervention.
Meanwhile, the political parties, including Chandrababu Naidu led Telegu Desam Party (TDP) and the Left parties have been exerting pressure on the government so that AP could get its due share. In fact, on Tuesday, Naidu spoke at length in the state Assembly and highlighted the failure of the government in making Reliance agree to the state’s demand.
Despite the U turn, the state government made in its stand over the Reliance gas issue, a statement from the chief minister’s office said, “The Chief Minister also reiterated that the state will fight for its reasonable share of gas to be produced in future and also for its share of royalties. He (the chief minister) said the he will make sure that the state also gets the remaining 2.21 mmscmd duly allotted to it.”
The review meeting was apparently an informative session for the chief minister himself, who has been arguing that state has a right over the gas produced from the KG basin since it falls in the territory of Andhra Pradesh. According to the statement from the CMO, “The Chief Minister was informed (by the officials in the review meeting) that as per Article 297 of the Constitution of India, all lands, minerals and other things of value underlying the ocean within the territorial waters or the continental shelf of India vest in the Union government. In view of this, the natural gas occurring in K-G Basin in the Bay of Bengal, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh belongs to Government of India. This is the case with Bombay High, North Basin and South Basin gas as well which is presently meeting 70% of India’s gas requirement through HBJ pipeline, now extended up to New Delhi.”
“Incidentally, the entire requirement in respect of all existing gas based projects in the state is fully met by supplies from RIL. It is estimated that RIL will reach the targeted production level of 40 mmscmd by September 30, 2009. The RIL will eventually produce 80 mmscmd by September, 2010,” the statement said.
The state government is hopeful that the other contractors operating in the region including ONGC, Cairn and GSPC would start production in the next four years.
