Govt fully behind oil ministry, says Moily

NEW DELHI: Asserting that the government will protect its right over national resources, law minister Veerappa Moily on Friday said the Centre is fully behind the petroleum ministry���s plea in the Supreme Court seeking delinking of gas from 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 after attending a meeting called by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.

Mr Moily���s assertion comes in the midst of reports that 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,��� Mr Moily said, adding, ���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, was to ���bring out a stronger government response to the appropriation of natural gas��� from KG basin fields by the two brothers.

Mr Moily made the government position public within days of RNRL chairman Anil Ambani alleging that petroleum ministry is colluding Mukesh Ambani-led RIL to give the company a super normal of Rs 50,000 crore.

Anil Ambani, whose firm RNRL claims more than one-third of KG-D6 as output at price $2.34 per mmBtu, which is 44% cheaper than government rates, had reportedly stated that petroleum ministry and not the government had gone to the Supreme Court against the family settlement that split the Ambani empire.