The Ratna and R-Series oil and gas fields are located 130 km off the Mumbai coast and hold an estimated 87 million barrels of oil and 1.2 billion cubic metres of gas reserves, according to reports.
These fields were planned to be awarded under the Discovered Field Policy of the Government announced during 1992 - 93, when the P V Narsimha Rao led Congress government was in power.
It was envisaged that the development of these fields through private sector / joint sector development by signing the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) would facilitate in creating additional value for the country from such projects.
However, the PSC in respect of these fields could not be signed during past two decades owing to number of reasons and the intended contribution of the Ratna and R-series fields in achievement of overall policy objective could not be attained.
The central government noted that in the intervening period of more than twenty years there have been substantial changes in the terms and conditions prevalent at the time of issue of Letter of Award.
Considering huge financial stakes for the government in terms of the statutory levies accruing from crude and natural gas production from these fields and with an overall objective of increasing domestic hydrocarbon production by expeditious development of these fields, the Union government decided that the fields may be reverted to the original licensee, ONGC, who had initially developed these fields partially and operated and obtained production from these fields till 1994.
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