New Delhi, Aug. 26 (PTI): Petroleum minister Murli Deora has asked for an independent review of Reliance Industries’ proposed investment of $8.8 billion to develop its KG-D6 fields to allay fears that the company was inflating expenditure to get a higher price for natural gas.

Reservoir engineer P. Gopalakrishnan will look into the reasons for the rise in phase-I capital expenditure from $2.47 billion to $5.2 billion and an additional $3.6 billion proposed for phase-II beginning 2010 to maintain plateau production of 80 million standard cubic metres per day.

Besides, one of the six shortlisted global consultants will be appointed to carry out validation of the proposed field development plan, upstream oil regulator V.K. Sibal wrote to the ministry on August 24 on Deora’s instructions for a second opinion.

The six consultants include the US-based Mustang Engineering, Canada’s Pajak Engineering, Petrofac of the UK and French company Beicip Franlab. Sibal said the $8.8-billion investment approval was limited only to establish techno-economic feasibility of producing gas from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in KG-D6.