20 years on, Ratna and R-Series fields to be returned to ONGC

After almost two decades, Ratna & R-Series fields in the country’s west coast have been returned to ONGC.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday decided to return the fields to the public sector exploration and production major, as well as cancel the letter of award dated March 12, 1996, to Essar Oil and Oil Pacific UK Ltd.

The fields, which were planned to be awarded under the Discovered Field Policy of 1992-93, were to be developed through private sector/joint sector development by signing the production sharing contract.

However, the production-sharing contract could not be signed during the last two decades owing to number of reasons and the intended contribution of Ratna and R-series fields in the achievement of overall policy objective could not be attained, an official statement said.

“Considering huge financial stakes for the government in terms of the statutory levies accruing from crude oil and natural gas production…the government decided that the fields may be reverted to the original licensee ONGC, who had initially developed these fields partially, and operated and obtained production till 1994,” the statement added. According to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India released last year, the delay in the award of the field has led to a loss of oil and gas production to the tune of ₹26,000 crore.

The report assumed that timely award would have resulted in the fields resuming production from October 2005. The CAG, in its report, stated that these delays in decision making reflected a ‘lack of seriousness’ in the approach of the Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

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