Pranab, Moily back Deora: Gas a national asset

NEW DELHI: The government appears to be unaffected by Anil Ambani's accusation of bias against the petroleum ministry as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, law minister Veerappa Moily and oil minister Murli Deora are learnt to have had two rounds of discussions and upheld the petroleum ministry���s contention that the KG Basin gas was national property and no private MoU can determine its supply.

This position, said a top government official, was reached and enunciated to government counsel Mohan Parasaran at a meeting late Friday evening among the three ministers and top bureaucrats who are required to frame the government���s response in the Supreme Court in the ongoing legal battle between the Ambani brothers.

Sources said this position was arrived at after a series of meetings among the three ministers concerned through the day.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, law minister Veerappa Moily and oil minister Murli Deora have had two rounds of discussions and upheld the petroleum ministry���s contention that the KG Basin gas was national property and no private MoU can determine its supply.



Deora also met Mukherjee and Moily separately in the day before the three met late evening with officials to discuss the government���s petition and Anil Ambani���s charge of partisanship on the part of oil ministry.

���Family MoUs cannot come in the way of national policy. The government is fully behind the oil ministry and will do all to defend the gas utilization policy. We are only concerned with the part dealing with gas from the Andhra offshore field in the MoU between RNRL and RIL. We are not concerned with anything else in the MoU,��� a top government official told TOI after the meeting.

Oil minister Murli Deora is expected to make a statement in Parliament on Monday.