CUSTOMS, EXCISE & SERVICE TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL NEW DELHI PRINCIPAL BENCH – COURT NO. III Service Tax Appeal No.59263 of 2013 [Arising out of Order-in-Original No.100/GB/2013 dated 17.05.2013 passed by the Commissioner, Service Tax Commissionerate, New Delhi]

Schlumberger Asia Services Ltd. …Appellant

14^th Floor, Tower „C‟, Building No.10, DLF Cyber City Phase-II, Gurgaon,Haryana-122 002.

Versus Commissioner of Service Tax, …Responden I.A.E.A, House 17-B, I.P. Estate, M.G. Marg, New Delhi-110 002.

APPEARANCE:

Shri V. Lakshmikumaran, Shri Kunal Aggarwal and Ms. Shagun Arora, Advocates for the Appellant Shri Rajpal Sharma, learned Special Counsel for the Revenue.

CORAM:

HON’BLE MS. BINU TAMTA, MEMBER (JUDICIAL)

HON’BLE MS. HEMAMBIKA R. PRIYA, MEMBER (TECHNICAL)

FINAL ORDER NO. 50137/2026 Date of Hearing: 14.01.2026 Date of Decision: 21.01.2026 BINU TAMTA:

1. Schlumberger Asia Services Ltd., The Appellant has assailed the Order-in- Original No.100/GB/2013 dated May 17, 2013, whereby the demand towards service tax was confirmed under Section 73(1) of the Finance Act, 1994, The Act, along with interest and penalty.

2. Briefly stated, the appellant is providing wire–logging services to Exploration and Production Companies, E & P Cos. such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Reliance Industries Limited, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation etc. The nature of services included wire–line logging, logging while drilling, measurement while drilling, perforation services etc. in respect of wells located beyond and within 12 nautical miles from India landmass. Logs recorded by the appellant were either delivered directly to the E & P Companies or used for data analysis at the Data Processing Centre located in Mumbai. As the appellant was not paying service tax in respect of processing activities undertaken by it, show cause notice dated April 23, 2010 was issued proposing demand of service tax on data analysis services under the category of „Survey and Exploration of Mineral, Oil & Gas Services‟ under Section 65(104a) read with section 65(105)(zzv) of the Act. By the impugned order, the Adjudicating Authority confirmed the demand of service tax:-

i). Under the category of „Technical Testing and Analysis Services‟ for the period prior to May 31, 2007;

and ii). Under the category of „Mining Services‟ with effect from June 1, 2007.

Hence, the present appeal has been filed before this Tribunal.

3. Shri V. Lakshmikumaran, the learned Counsel for the appellant commenced arguments, restricting it to the preliminary issue that the impugned order is unsustainable for the simple reason that the adjudicating order has traversed beyond the scope of the show cause notice. Referring to the contents of the show cause notice, he

submitted that the proposal was that the logging services provided by the appellant would fall under the ambit of „Survey and Exploration of Mineral, Oil, and Gas Service‟. The learned Counsel has taken us through para 26 and 29 of the show cause notice, which reads as follows:-

26. Section 65(105) (zzv) of the Finance Act, 1994 states that taxable service means any service provided to customer, by any person in relation to Survey and Exploration of mineral Section 65(104a) defines "Survey and Exploration of mineral service" as the geological, geophysical or other prospecting, sub surface, surface, survey or map making service in relation to location or exploration of deposits of minerals, oil and Gas. In the instant case, the data processing and interpretation of the well log data service is performed by M/s SASL at their data processing and interpretation centre in India and provided to their customers, i.e., ONGC, RIL and GSPC etc. The officials of M/s SASL have also accepted that the Well Logging/Logging White Drilling services provided by them are for prospecting of deposits of mineral, oil & gas. The Data Processing and Interpretation services are provided in the course of Well Logging services. Therefore, the Data Processing and Interpretat