The Indian Government has heavily fined Reliance Industries and partners, including BP, for failing to hit natural gas targets in offshore fields.
The Mumbai registered firm has been handed a bill for around $264million for producing less than the targeted natural gas from eastern offshore KG-D6 fields in 2015-16.
It brings the total penalty for missing targets back as far as 2010, to $3.02billion.
The Production Sharing Contract (PSC) allows Reliance and its partners BP and Canada’s Niko Resources to deduct all capital and operating expenses from the sale of gas before sharing profit with the government.
Gas production per day from the block has only amounted to less than half than what was originally anticipated.
This output continues to fall, and is now below 4 mmscmd.
Reliance holds 60% interest in block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 in Bay of Bengal. BP has 30% and Niko 10%.