Govt behind OilMin: Moily

Asserting that the government will protect its right over natural resources, Law Minister Veerappa Moily today said the Centre was fully behind the petroleum ministry’s plea in the Supreme Court seeking delinking of gas from the Ambani family deal.

“It is the government petition that has been filed in the Supreme Court. We are fully behind the petroleum ministry in protecting the interest of the government,” he said, emerging from a meeting called by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.

Moily’s assertion comes in the midst of reports that the oil ministry’s petition filed in the Supreme Court to assert its right to fix the gas price and seek direction to declare null and void the Ambani family MoU on the issue could be diluted through a modified prayer.

“We are not interested in any family settlement. All we want is that the property that belongs to the people of this country should be de-linked,” Moily said. “And whatever is needed to protect our (government) interest, we will do.”

The meeting, attended by petroleum minister Murli Deora, government counsel Mohan Parasaran and secretaries of law and oil ministries, were to “...bring out a stronger government response to the appropriation of natural gas” from KG basin fields by the two brothers.

Moily made the government position public within days of RNRL Chairman Anil Ambani alleging that the petroleum ministry is colluding with Mukesh Ambani-led RIL to give the company a supernormal revenue of Rs 50,000 crore. Anil Ambani, whose RNRL claims more than one-third of KG-D6 output at the rate of $2.34 per mBtu (million British thermal unit), which is 44 per cent cheaper than the government-specified rate, had reportedly stated that the petroleum ministry and not the government had gone to the Supreme Court against the family settlement that split the Ambani empire.

Without taking Anil Ambani’s name, Moily said it was “uncharitable” on the part of certain people to have attacked Deora on the issue as he was only acting in the public interest.