Ambanis seek day-to-day hearing of KG gas row

Appearing on behalf of elder brother Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries (RIL), Harish Salve requested the division bench of Justice S P Mhase and Justice P B Varale for hearing the case on a day-to-day basis.

Supporting the view, Anil Ambani-lead Reliance Natural Resources' (RNRL) counsel Ram Jethmalani also said that the matter was long and highly complicated and would take at least 15 full working days of the court.

The court adjourned the hearing of the case to Wednesday. The division bench directed the matter to be placed before the Chief Justice, who will then decide which bench should hear the final argument in the case.

The dispute between the two Ambani companies relate to allotment of gas from the Mukesh Ambani company controlled KG basin to a proposed 7,500 megawatt power plant being built by younger brother.

After the government of India set a higher benchmark price of $4.2 mmbtu or one million British thermal unit for the gas from KG basin, RIL has refused to sell the gas to Reliance Natural Resources at a lower rate.

RIL, according to a company source, has already completed 90 per cent of its pipelines for evacuation of the gas from the fields. The company is equipped to commence production of about 25 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) in a couple of months. It plans to raise production to 40 mmscmd from March 2009, he added.

Meanwhile, the centre's representative in the court said, "We want the court to vacate the stay on gas and make the gas available to the country."

The government in April had filed an application in the court saying it should be made a party to the case as it part-owned the gas that RIL would be producing from the D6 block in the KG basin. But RNRL had opposed the move. The court is yet to take a decision on it.

The government wants the stay vacated for starting the production from the KG basin. The court had earlier restrained RIL from entering into gas sales contracts with parties other than RNRL and state-run NTPC, but had agreed with the government set price of $4.20 per million British thermal unit of KG-D6 gas.

The government had recently fixed the priority for the gas sale.