More Stories

Informist, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026

 

--HC agrees to hear govt plea to execute award for $2.31 bln claims vs RIL

--HC rejects RIL argument that govt execution plea on award not maintainable 

 

NEW DELHI – A division bench of the Delhi High Court Monday agreed to hear the government's plea seeking enforcement of a 2016 final partial award for its $2.31-billion claims against Reliance Industries Ltd., in a dispute over cost recovery provisions and reimbursement of royalties and taxes related to the Panna-Mukta oilfield and Tapti gas field. The bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Madhu Jain rejected Reliance Industries' argument that the government's appeal was not maintainable against the single judge's 2023 order and the Centre should wait for the final award.

 

The division bench said that it did not find any merit in Reliance Industries' objection on maintainability of the present appeal and the case will be heard on merit now. The division bench placed the matter for hearing for listing before the roster bench on Feb. 17.

 

On Jun. 2, 2023, Justice C. Hari Shankar of the single judge bench had rejected the government's execution petition as premature and not maintainable. He said the 2016 final partial award was not an executable arbitral award as it did not award any amount to the government.

 

Two production-sharing contracts were signed between the government and a conglomeration of Reliance Industries, British Gas Exploration and Production India Ltd., and Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. Under the contracts, the conglomeration of contractors was permitted to extract oil and gas from the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields at their own cost, recoverable from the government subject to an upper limit.

 

In December 2010, Reliance Industries and British Gas Exploration took the government to arbitration over the cost recovery provisions, profit due to the government, and statutory dues, including royalty payable. They sought to raise the limit of cost that could be recovered from the sale of oil and gas before profits were shared with the government. The government countered with its own claims of expenditure incurred, inflated sales, excess cost recovery, and short accounting.

 

The dispute was being decided through a series of partial awards. After all the final partial awards were passed, the actual amounts to be paid were to be computed in the final award. In the 2016 final partial award, no amount was awarded to the government. However, the government used the award to claim $2.31 billion from Reliance Industries and British Gas Exploration by filing a petition in the high court to execute the award.

 

Justice Shankar held that the final partial award could only be implemented after a final decision on the application by Reliance Industries and British Gas Exploration to increase cost recovery and passage of the final quantum award. Challenging the single judge bench's order, the government moved the division bench of the court.

 

On the National Stock Exchange, shares of Reliance Industries closed higher by over 3% at INR 1,390.40.  End

 

US$1 = INR 91.51

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.