Clarity on Cairn-Vedanta deal soon, says Deora

Petroleum minister Murli Deora said there was likely to be clarity in a fortnight on the government stand regarding the $8.48-billion Cairn-Vedanta deal.

"The ministry has received the law ministry's opinion. At this point, I cannot tell you lies or truth. However, I feel clarity on the deal will be possible the week after December 5," he told reporters after he took a review with oil marketing companies on the current shortage of liquefied petroleum gas in various states.

To a question on the petroleum ministry's stand on this issue, Deora declined to comment.

The law ministry has opined that UK's Cairn Energy cannot sell stake in its Indian unit to Vedanta Resources without a government nod for transfer of control in all its properties, including the giant Rajasthan oilfields. The Solicitor General said so, too, when asked for advice by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.

Gas shortage
Deora admitted some states, including those in the northeast, were facing a LPG shortage, due to supply chain issues. However, he said normalcy would be restored by December 15. With 55 per cent of Indians using LPG as a cooking gas, the three oil marketing companies are together home-delivering 2.5 million cylinders daily, through 9,700 distributors. Daily demand would rise to 2.8 million cylinders during the winter. "LPG is currently being partly imported from abroad. While indigenous availability has gone up from 7.6 million tonnes in 2005-06 to 10.2 mt in 2010-11, the demand has increased at a much faster pace and is projected to reach 13.96 mt in the current year.

The country will be importing 3.9 mt, or 32 per cent of its LPG requirements, in the current year," the minister informed.

To address the issue of adulteration and diversion of LPG, the ministry had tied up with the Unique Identification Authority so that biometrics would be used, said Deora.