Supreme Court seeks response from Centre, ONGC on Vedanta's appeal relating to Barmer oil field

Earlier, a single judge bench had directed the Centre to extend its PSC with Vedanta Ltd and ONGC to produce oil from the Barmer oil field until 2030. The Centre had appealed the judgement before a division bench of the high court. The Centre's appeal was allowed by the division bench of the high court.

In response, Vedanta filed a petition with the Supreme Court. Vedanta's contract, due to expire in 2020, had been extended for another ten years by a single judge. These terms and agreements were the same as when the first agreement was signed in 1995.

Vedanta had requested the extension of the PSC from the government in 2009, but received no response. The company claimed the delay in a government decision prevented it from investing more than Rs 30,000 crore in the project.

According to Vedanta's claim before a single judge, 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent are estimated to be recoverable from the block. A total of 466 million barrels are expected to be recovered beyond the current PSC period until 2030.The company also claimed to produce natural gas from the block and supply it to government companies.