August 8, 2012. Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy has pledged conditional support for Reliance Industries' plans to raise gas output while a state-controlled panel approved the budget for the KG-D6 block, signaling some improvement in the thorny relationship between the ministry and the company. The government-led management committee (MC) of the Reliance-operated block approved the budget for KG-D6 for the past two fiscal years, which had been pending for a long time, and gave consent to $1.06-billion expenditure for 2012-13. Industry say the delay in the approval of budget would hamper output from the block. The committee also allowed Reliance and its partner BP to develop three other gas fields in the same block but said the operator would be able to recover the costs only after extensive appraisal of these discoveries to formally establish commercial viability. The government took the conciliatory approach after RIL agreed to share D6 accounts with the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) of India. MC has not yet approved the declaration of commerciality (DoC) of D-29, D30 and D31 gas discoveries because of some technical reasons but expressed willingness to give the company time to resolve the issues raised and allow it to develop the fields. The MC agreed that the contractor could submit a proposal to the government for its consideration for extension of appraisal period.