India is pursuing more than $30 billion in damages from Reliance Industries and BP in an arbitration case regarding gas that the companies allegedly did not extract from offshore fields, as per reports.

Since 2016, a tribunal in India has been adjudicating the dispute concerning gas extracted from two deepwater fields, D1 and D3, located in the D6 block of the Krishna Godavari basin, according to seven individuals familiar with the proceedings.

According to reports, the three-member tribunal is anticipated to issue its decision in mid-2026. The decision can be contested in Indian courts.

The D1 and D3 fields, India's initial significant deepwater gas venture, were considered crucial for enhancing the nation's energy autonomy when they were first established. Nonetheless, the prominent project faced production challenges linked to water infiltration and reservoir pressure, along with cost-recovery disagreements with the government, and did not meet initial production expectations.

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In 2012, the oil ministry informed parliament in a written statement that before starting work on the D6 gas fields, Reliance had projected the recoverable reserves from D1 and D3 at 10.3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) before reducing that estimate to 3.1 tcf.

The gas block, situated in the Bay of Bengal near the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, was granted by the Indian government in 2000 to Reliance, a firm owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, through a production sharing agreement.

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The $30 billion claim represents the most significant legal action taken by the Indian government against a corporation, focusing on its assertion that the companies’ mismanagement led to the depletion of the majority of the reserves in D1 and D3.

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According to the production sharing agreement between Reliance and the Indian government, conflicts need to be resolved by an arbitration tribunal that both parties agree on.