The Supreme Court has declined to pause proceedings in the high-stakes Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin gas migration dispute between the Centre and a Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)-led consortium.
The court's decision came after the consortium informed it that they intend to approach the Union government seeking conciliation or mediation of the matter.
The Centre had accused the consortium of having “virtually committed a theft” of natural gas belonging to state-run the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) from adjoining offshore fields in the KG basin off the Andhra Pradesh coast.
The hearing had commenced before the bench comprising the CJI and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, who agreed with the Centre’s position that the hearing should continue.
The dispute centres on allegations that natural gas from ONGC’s offshore blocks migrated into the adjoining KG-D6 block operated by the RIL-led consortium and was subsequently extracted between 2009 and 2013.
