Reliance Industries (RIL) said on Tuesday that the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) had raised a demand of $2.81 billion in the long-running Krishna Godavari (KG) basis gas migration dispute case.

RIL said that it had won an arbitral award issued by an eminent international arbitration panel on July 24, 2018, against the Government of India’s (GOI’s) claim on the KG-D6 Consortium for around $1.55 billion on account of alleged gas migration from ONGC’s blocks. 

A single judge of the Delhi High Court, on May 09, 2023, dismissed the GOI’s appeal challenging the arbitral award. GOI had filed an appeal before the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court. The Division Bench has reversed the judgment of the single judge, it added.

“Consequent upon the above-mentioned Division Bench judgment, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has raised a demand of $2.81 billion on the PSC Contractors namely Reliance Industries, BP Exploration (Alpha) and NIKO (NECO). The letter of demand was received by the Company at 11:30 a.m. on March 3, 2025,” it said in a filing on BSE.

Reliance said it is legally advised that the Division Bench judgment and this provisional demand are “unsustainable”. 

“The Company is taking steps to challenge the judgment of Division Bench of Delhi High Court. The Company does not expect any liability on this account,” it added.