New Delhi: The ministry of petroleum is yet to decide whether Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will get to retain the entire 7,305 sq km of the promising deepwater gas block off the Andhra Pradesh coast, though the company claims that the issue of relinquishing a certain portion of the area has already been resolved.

Earlier this week, the company had written to the Ministry that the issue of surrendering some area of KG-DWN-98/3 (D6) has been sorted out, with the block''s management committee allowing the company to retain the entire area. The management committee comprising Government nominees and representatives of the contractor is assigned the task of reviewing the operations in the block.

RIL was responding to a communication from the Ministry, which said that the matter was still open and that there could be some modification in the area being held by the company in D6.

RIL was currently implementing phase three of exploration activities and simultaneously undertaking development work in the discovered areas in D6.

As per the PSC, a contractor has the option to relinquish a minimum of 25 per cent of the area after phase one (three years), and at the end of the second phase, the contractor has to relinquish all areas except those in which hydrocarbons have been discovered and for which an appraisal programme or a development plan has been drawn up as per the contract.

RIL has been given 13 months and nine day''s extension by the management committee, beginning June 7 this year until July 15 next year, to finish its exploration activity in the block. The company had sought extension of exploration licence for the block as its activities in phase one had got delayed due to external factors.