Reliance Indusries shares down nearly 2% as govt imposes $1.55 bn demand

New Delhi: Shares of Reliance Industries fell by nearly 2 percent today after the government slapped a USD 1.55 billion demand on the company and its partners BP and Niko for "unfairly enriching" by producing natural gas belonging to ONGC.

The stock went down by 1.92 percent to end at Rs 1,005.80 on BSE. During the day, the stock lost 2.42 percent to Rs 1,000.55.

At NSE, shares of the company dipped 1.79 percent to end at Rs 1,005.55.

In terms of volume, 2.18 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over 26 lakh changed hands at NSE during the day.

The oil ministry on November 3 issued a notice to all the three partners seeking USD 1.47 billion for producing 338.332 million British thermal unit in seven years ended March 2016.

After deducting USD 71.71 million royalty paid on the gas produced and adding an interest at the rate of Libor plus 2 percent totaling USD 149.86 million, a total demand of USD 1.55 billion was made on RIL, BP and Niko.

Originally, ONGC had sought suing RIL and seeking compensation for the gas that had migrated from its blocks KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) and Godavari PML in the KG basin in the Bay of Bengal to neighbouring KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) block of RIL and produced by the private company.

The government had appointed a one-man committee under retired Justice A P Shah to go into the issue.