The face-off between the ministry of petroleum & natural gas and its upstream arm Directorate General of Hydrocarbons has reached the office of petroleum minister Murli Deora.
Complains over ‘negative campaign’
NEW DELHI: The face-off between the ministry of petroleum & natural gas and its upstream arm Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has reached the office of petroleum minister Murli Deora. The director general, VK Sibal, has petitioned the minister citing various instances that have led to demoralising effect on his officers.
While stating that the responsibility of gas allocation and utilisation solely lay with the ministry and not with his office, sources said Sibal has taken exception to the criticism his office has faced on the recent flip-flop on allocation of gas produced from Panna, Mukta and Tapti (PMT) fields.
According to him, the assigned role of DGH was limited to overseeing upstream activities (those confined to sub-surface or sub-water) of the exploration and production sector.
Contrary to the impression that the DGH did not monitor the gas allocation resulting in GAIL losing its share of gas, Sibal has pointed out that his office had in advance informed the ministry about the increase in production from the fields in the second-half of 2007, sources said.
RIL, ONGC and BG India take turns in operating the PMT fields. Interestingly, DGH has also whined over “the apprehensions expressed about DGH handling of the field development plan of KG-DWN-98/3” (D6) that is also operated by RIL.
Sources said Sibal informed the minister recently that not only international experts verified the approval granted to D6’s revised field development plan by his office, DGH’s evaluation of the same has been vindicated.
He pointed out that such negative campaign against DGH could impact the investor sentiment especially at a time when they were working hard to get participation from private investors.
Sources claimed Sibal also felt wronged by the ministry as notings on official meetings have been misrepresented and have shown his office in poor light.
m_jyoti@dnaindia.net
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