RIL's CAG audit is a contractual obligation: Moily

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Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M. Veerappa Moily said on Monday the audit of Reliance Industries operated Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 natural gas blocks is a contractual obligation and the company will abide by it.

"I have already gone on record to say that it is a contractual relationship between the government and the respective contracting parties... Audit is part of this (contractual obligation)," he told media persons here.

"We will not create any problems for Reliance or the CAG", Moily added.

Earlier, the government had agreed to limit the proposed audit to financial aspects that would exempt any evaluation of the technologies and processes of RIL.

An "entry meeting" between the CAG, the oil ministry and RIL scheduled for Oct 31 in order to begin the audit process was postponed by the ministry.

The output from the KG-D6 gas blocks has been declining while RIL has been showing increasing capital expenditure.

The petroleum ministry wants RIL to give the CAG "unfettered access to account books" and it has not approved the company's investment proposals, including the annual budget for the past three years.

"Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has raised certain apprehensions regarding this audit and expressed their desire to discuss the issue further. The issues are likely to be finalised in the next few weeks," the petroleum ministry had said after Moily took over as the new minister.

RIL has been opposing a performance audit of its KG-D6 gas fields.

In a statement Saturday, RIL said it had never contested the government's right to get spendings on the flagging KG-D6 gas fields audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and welcomed the official auditor's pressnote that it did not conduct performance audit of private operators.