Ambani gas row: Anil welcomes changed govt stand

Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) chairman Anil Ambani has welcomed the amendments proposed by the Union government in its petition on the Ambani gas row filed before the Supreme Court.

Addressing a press conference here, he said today the dispute between RNRL and brother Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL) was a purely commercial matter and concerned with implementation of the scheme of re-organisation of RIL’s businesses in 2005.

“With the filing of today’s application, the role of the government in the RNRL-RIL matter remains limited only to the interpretation of the gas utilisation policy and provisions of the Production Sharing Contract. RNRL is grateful to the Government of India for its neutral stand in proposing these amendments. This is the same scope of intervention that was permitted to the government by the (earlier) Bombay High Court (judgement of May),” Anil Ambani said.

In the application filed today, the government has categorically stated that its intention is not to question the legality and validity of the Ambani MoU and it is in no way concerned with the private dispute between RIL and RNRL or between the Ambani brothers.

Anil also welcomed the steps taken to protect the interests of NTPC, on the matter of getting gas from RIL at the same price RNRL wants, from “potential losses of up to Rs 30,000 crore and preserving the wider national and public interest.”