New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) The Comptroller and Auditor General of India will examine the contract between Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and the government in respect of the Krishna-Godavari gas fields, the Rajya Sabha was informed Tuesday.
The audit of the production-sharing contract would be for two years ended March 31, 2008, and will pertain to what has been named Block KG DWN-983, awarded to the Mukesh Ambani-led company, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada said.

Reliance Industries has expressed its willingness to provide all the details and access to the records of the KG-D6 fields to facilitate the audit, the minister said in the written reply.

The official auditor has received most of the initial documents from the company, Prasada said, adding the auditor was in a position to commence the examination from Dec 14.

To another question on whether the dispute between Reliance Industries and the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Natural Resources Ltd was creating problems in the extraction of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin, Prasada’s reply was an empnatic “no”.

“The extraction of gas and supply to consumers of gas is being done in accordance with the policies of the government,” he said, adding the oil ministry has asked the Supreme Court to protect the interests of the government and the country at large.

The minister’s reply comes against the backdrop of a petition in the Supreme Court that in a bid to make huge profits from the Krishna-Godavari fields, Reliance Industries had hiked the capital expenditure from $2.4 billion to $8.8 billion.

“This astronomical rise is not genuine and has been wrongly approved by the Director General of Hydrocarbons and the ministry of petroleum and natural gas,” said the petition filed Oct 6 by Reliance Natural Resources.

The petition alleged that while then Director General of Hydrocarbons V.K. Sibal had said that the official auditor had examined the capital expenditure of Reliance Industries and found it in order, the actual position was far removed.

Reliance Natural Resources is fighting a bitter legal battle with Reliance Industries for securing 28 million units of gas a day from the Krishna-Godavari basin for 17 years at $2.34 per unit, based on a family pact.