* Reliance Industries says arbitration is still on-going
* Govt has approached court to block deal with Saudi Aramco
- news
reports
* Govt seeks to block deal unless Reliance, partners pay -
news
reports
MUMBAI, Dec 23 (Reuters) - India's biggest company Reliance
Industries Ltd has called a government move to try and
force the refinery-to-telecoms behemoth to pay dues from an
offshore oil and gas field "premature" with an arbitration
process still underway.
The government and Reliance, along with partner Royal Dutch
Shell Plc, are locked in a battle over the Panna-Mukta
and Tapti offshore oil and gas field to the west of the country,
with the government claiming it is owed revenue from the
operators of the block.
On Saturday, local daily the Times of India, citing an
affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court, reported that the
government in September sought to block the sale of a 20% stake
in Reliance's refinery and petrochemicals business to oil giant
Saudi Aramco unless Reliance makes the payments from
the offshore field.
Reliance said in a statement on Monday that the government
had approached the court prematurely to enforce its claim.
"RIL (Reliance) maintains that except as quantified by the
tribunal no amounts can be said to be payable at this stage."
It declined to comment on any link to the stake sale.
India's oil ministry did not immediately respond to an email
seeking comment.
The sale to Aramco is likely to be worth around $15 billion
and one of the biggest foreign investments in India.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd is also a
joint operator of the offshore block but is not participating in
the arbitration.
In its statement, Reliance said that the arbitration is
still on-going and has awarded only partial judgments against
the companies in the last three years, one in 2016 and one in
2018. None of the judgments have specified a payment amount.
The "2016 Award, in part superseded by 2018 award, cannot be
said to have attained finality and attempts to enforce 2016
award are premature," Reliance said.
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
