Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) counsel Harish Salve told the Bombay High Court that RIL cannot sell gas from the KG basin fields at $2.34 per mmbtu to Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) because many external factors determine the price of gas. He also said that there is a huge risk in the oil exploration business and hence prices cannot be determined before RIL gets any returns on its investments in the project. However, RNRL counsel Ram Jethmalani will resume his submissions to the court on Friday regarding the legal battle between the Ambani brothers over gas supply from the KG basin blocks.
Salve also told the court that RIL had not signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with RNRL. ?The MoU says that the gas supply agreement is with Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) and for the Dadri power project. Nowhere does it say that the gas will go to RNRL,? said Salve.
Salve had earlier alleged that RNRL had changed key expressions in the MoU and excluded them from court submissions. He had also said that in the MoU for gas supply, RNRL had replaced ?REL? with ?ADAG? (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group), because it wanted to ?trade? the gas and make profits. ?We had offered to sign an agreement with the Dadri power plant,? he said. It may be noted that RIL is to start pumping gas from the KG-D6 field from next month and will produce 60 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) by year-end.
Salve said under the Draft Supply Agreement, 12 mmscmd of D6 gas would first go to NTPC. While Reliance Energy would get the next tranche of 28 mmscmd, the remaining 20 mmscmd would be used by RIL for its captive consumption.
Meanwhile, government counsel Mohan Parasaran said that the empowered group of ministers (EGOM) decision on the power supply to Dadri project would be submitted to the court shortly.