Aramane Giridhar, joint secretary (exploration) at the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, who handled the vexed issue of the fall in natural gas output in the Reliance Industries-operated KG-D6 block and has been perceived to be at odds with former petroleum minister Veerappa Moily, is set to leave the ministry. Even as the NDA government has taken over at the Centre, Giridhar would be joining Chandrababu Naidu, tipped to be Seemandhra chief minister, as his principal secretary, sources said.
The outgoing bureaucrat has recently given detailed presentations on the crucial issue of gas pricing to petroleum secretary Saurabh Chandra and additional secretary Rajive Kumar, the sources added. The petroleum ministry is expected to send the clearance for Giridhar’s transfer to his cadre state to the department of personnel and training soon. The official, sources said, is likely to to take up his new assignment as early as next week, when Naidu is expected to be sworn in.
P K Singh, joint secretary handling gas allocation and international co-operation is likely to given the charge of exploration till the ministry gets a new officer. Giridhar had stepped into the petroleum ministry in January 12, 2012 has been in the news for his strong views on how to handle the dispute with RIL on alleged suppression of gas output by the company and the proposal to hike the price of gas.
Giridhar, 51, an Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer, was brought into the petroleum ministry by S Jaipal Reddy, who preceded Moily as petroleum minister.
Ironically, it was Giridhar who had proposed implementation of new gas pricing regime based on Rangarajan formula effective January 1. However, Moily turned down the proposal and said it should be implemented only from April 1. “Had new price been put in place from January 1, the Election Commission might not have stalled the price revision citing model code of conduct,? said an industry official. The ministry has now prepared a new cabinet note on the gas pricing regime to be implemented from July 1. This would be taken up by now by the new minister (independent charge) for petroleum & natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan. The crucial issue of whether RIL’s foreign partners BP and Niko Resources would be allowed to charge a higher price for KG D6 gas, however, remains inconclusive.
Separately, the arbitration process over the government disallowing cost recovery demanded by RIL in KGD6 is on. Another issue being handled by the outgoing joint secretary is auction of oil and gas blocks. The ministry had shortlisted about 70 blocks to be auctioned under tenth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy.
