NEW DELHI, Aug 1: The awarding of the Ratna and R-series to the Essar-Premier Oil consortium appears to have got stuck following the controversy over the awarding of fields to the Reliance-Enron consortium -- a public interest litigation was filed in the Delhi High Court last week on the matter.

While the committee of secretaries (CoS) cleared the awarding of the Ratna-R series oilfields in April itself, the final award is yet to be made. The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas is now believed to be of the view that it would be best to wait for the court's judgement on the Mukta-Panna case before any fresh contract is awarded. When contacted, an Essar spokesperson confirmed that the contract had not yet been formally awarded to them.

The Ministry's argument for delaying the award is that much the same criticism that has been levelled against the Mukta-Panna contract applies to the others contracts as well.

The main criticisms levelled in the public interest litigation (PIL) on the Mukta Panna fields are that Reliance-Enron has not paid the past cost incurred by ONGC for developing the field, and that the consortium will be paid international crude prices for their produce while ONGC gets paid just $8 per barrel. Like all private developers, the Essar consortium will also get paid international prices.

CBI to probe Ravva also

NEW DELHI: The Minister of state for Petroleum and Natural Gas T.R. Baalu told the Rajya Sabha today that the CBI has initiated a preliminary inquiry into the award of contract for the Panna-Mukta and Ravva oil fields. While it was known that the Panna-Mukta probe had been initiated, it was not known that the Ravva contract was also being probed by the CBI.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.