MoU twist to Ambani gas row

Mumbai, Oct. 7: Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) will place before a division bench of Bombay High Court tomorrow the portion of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Ambani brothers which pertains to gas supplies.

RNRL is locked in a legal dispute with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) over the supply of 28 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from RIL’s Dhirubhai-6 field in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

Anil Ambani claims the gas was supposed to be sold at an agreed price of $2.34 per million British thermal unit.

Ram Jethmalani, counsel for RNRL, made this offer to the division bench. He said that RNRL had already established its case without having to file the MoU. However, the court could call for the relevant portions of the agreement and ascertain its claims.

Harish Salve, counsel for RIL, said the contents of the document should not be made public.

Responding to this request, Justice J.N. Patel said only the judges would examine the document.

Jethmalani then submitted that RNRL also shared the confidentiality concerns and that the portions of the MoU would be submitted in envelopes to both the judges and to RIL.

RNRL has maintained that the MoU deals with the gas supply agreement between the two brothers and also contains references to RIL and its businesses.

Salve, on the other hand, had argued that the MoU was a document between the brothers and RIL was not associated with it, thereby implying that the MoU was not binding on the company.

“RIL never questioned the MoU or its terms till the end of December 2005. RIL also did not deny the MoU terms averred in RNRL’s application,” Jethmalani had argued in the proceedings earlier.