PM constitutes EGoM on RIL gas pricing

New Delhi, Aug 6: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today set up an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to look into the issue of natural gas pricing from Reliance Industries' KG basin field in Andhra Pradesh.

The decision was taken by Dr Singh when Petroleum Minister Murli Deora met him this morning to resolve the vexed issue of gas pricing from Reliance's fields, official sources said.

Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL has proposed to sell gas from the KG offshore gas fields at a price between 4.58 dollar and 4.33 dollar per million British thermal units (with the dollar on a Rs 41 - Rs 45 band).

Sources further said the EGoM would be headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and would give its decision on the issue within a month.

Earlier, the PMO had referred the matter to the Petroleum Ministry and had asked it to arrive at a conclusion, incorporating the recommendations of a Committee of Secretaries (CoS), headed by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar.

Mr Deora also said that the government will not intervene in the pricing of gas from Reliance Industries' KG basin field as the new exploration policy guaranteed market-determined prices to companies taking the risk of investing in the country's oil and gas sector.

The block was awarded to RIL in the first round of global bidding under NELP in 2000.

UNI