Petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily today said audit was a contractual obligation and hoped that the Reliance company will abide by it. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a fucntion in New Delhi, Mr Moily said he has gone on record to say that it is a contractual relationship between the government and the respective contracting parties.

RIL had on Saturday stated that it had never contested the government's right to get spendings on the flagging KG-D6 gas fields audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) but added that the consent must not lead to a performance audit of a private firm.

The row over CAG's second round of audit of KG-D6 field erupted after the Petroleum Ministry last week postponed a kick-off or 'Entry Conference' called to commence the scrutiny of spendings in 2008-09 to 2011-12.

The meeting was called-off due to differences over the nature and scope of audit to be conducted by CAG, with RIL saying it was open to a financial audit but not a performance scrutiny wherein complex technical decisions like hiring of a particular technology may come in for questioning.

The Petroleum Ministry, however, wants RIL to give CAG unfettered access to account books and pending that it has not approved the company's investment proposals including annual budget for past three years.