Anil Ambani shatters natural gas myths at RNRL AGM

Mumbai, Sep 23 (UNI) Extending the court room battle for his share of natural gas from the Krishna Godavari basin well KG D6, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) Chairman Anil Ambani today accused the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), owned by his brother Mukesh Ambani, of unilaterally finalising and signing a totally one-sided agreement with Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) Addressing the AGM of RNRL, Mr Ambani, in a scathing attack on RIL, said ''The unilateral gas supply agreement neither guarantees a firm quantity nor a firm tenure for the gas supply.'' However, it is noteworthy, that even in this one-sided document RIL did agree to the price of 2.34 dollars per mmbtu for the supply of gas. In other words, there was never any dispute about the price,'' he said adding that RIL did introduce a rider in the agreement, claiming that it had to seek the Government's approval for the sale price, ''which is obviously completely false''. ''In one word, far from safeguarding the value, that RIL had promised to shareholders of RNRL at the time of demerger, the agreement sought to shortchange it,'' he said.

Mr Ambani said RNRL was created by his visionary father Dhirubhai Ambani, who had realised the strategic importance of finding adequate domestic supplies of oil and gas to secure the country's long-term economic growth and take care of its rapidly-expanding energy and power needs.

''Dhirubhai's vision encompassed the 'well-head to wall-socket' strategy, to capture value across the entire energy chain from exploration and production of oil and gas, all the way to generation and distribution of power to hundreds of millions of consumers,'' he said.

''This vision of Dhirubhai was, naturally, sought to be implemented at the time of the re-organisation of the Reliance group in June 2005, when it was agreed that the gas produced by Reliance Industries would be substantially used for the power and other projects of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

This arrangement was approved, as shareholders of RIL, by you,'' he added.

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