Who Sets The Toll? Third-Party Access And Tariff Determination For Publicly Funded Common Offshore Infrastructure Under The Samudra Manthan Scheme
Aadi Jain, B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), Symbiosis Law School, Pune
Yousha Surjiani, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), Symbiosis Law School, Pune
ABSTRACT
The Samudra Manthan scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet in July 2026, with the Government committing ₹10,000 crore for shared offshore production and evacuation facilities. The use of such facility and the price at which it may be used would ordinarily be governed under Chapter VIII of Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 2025. In this article, we argue that Chapter VIII was drafted for disputes between petroleum lessees concerning private financed infrastructure, and it does not suit a publicly funded common hub. It is doubtful if the chapter ever reaches a hub owned by a non-lessee. Where it applies, it assumes an owner with its own production, which a hub does not have, in its conceptualisation of excess capacity. It grants locus standi only to a lessee. It empowers the Central Government to prescribe a reasonable tariff without defining the term or any input to it. It requires no reasons and no publication. It attracts no statutory appeal. The article’s seven concrete proposals for amendment are made with Norway as the main comparison and the Gassled litigation as a cautionary tale. Its central claims are that, as far as transplantable contribution is concerned, it is Norway’s enumerated tariff methodology and its publication discipline rather than its numerical return benchmark.
