NEW DELHI: The government on Monday said it is planning to appeal against the English Commercial Court arbitration award in favour of Reliance Industries (RIL) and Shell-owned BG Exploration & Production India (BGEPIL) in a cost recovery dispute in the western offshore Panna-Mukta and Tapti oil and gas fields.
The English high court last week dismissed India’s appeal against a $111 million international arbitration award in favour of RIL and BGEPIL. “Government of India has the right to seek leave of the English Commercial Court to challenge this judgment passed by it,” said the petroleum ministry in a statement on Monday.
RIL and BGEPIL dragged the government to arbitration over cost recovery provisions, profit due to the state and amount of statutory dues including royalty payable on December 16, 2010. They wanted to raise the limit of the cost that could be recovered from the sale of oil and gas before profits are shared with the government. The government also raised counterclaims over expenditure incurred, inflated sales, excess cost recovery, and short accounting.
So far, the tribunal has passed 8 partial awards. 66 of the 69 issues were decided in favour of the government in the final award passed by the tribunal in 2016. The British High court on June 9, 2022, ruled the government should have brought its objections over the arbitration tribunal not meeting the required thresholds when issuing the 2021 award earlier.