Natural Gas a national asset: Centre to SC

The Centre asserted before the Supreme Court that natural gas was a national asset and not the private property of the Ambani brothers.


Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Mohan Parasaran, appearing for the Centre, asserted before a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices B Sudarshan Reddy and P Sathasivam that the government as the watchdog of public interest and being the national regulator of natural resources, had the power to regulate the exploration and production of natural gas in the country.

Mr Parasaran stated that the government had the locus standi to intervene on behalf of the people. The RIL was only a contractor and not the owner of the Krishna Godavari Gas Basin. The government, as the main regulator, could also fix and revise the rates of natural gas keeping in mind the larger public interest from time to time, since natural gas played a vital role in the production of power.

The Centre also submitted before the apex court that the KG Basin gas must be made available immediately both to the public and private parties only in terms of the gas utilisation policy of the government.

The ASG, while claiming that the petition filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court was fully maintainable, also asserted that the gas utilisation policy of the government could not be over tuned by a judicial decision.


The government had revised the rates of natural gas from dollar 2.34 per unit to dollar 4.2 per unit for supply of natural gas to the Dadri-based power project of Anil Ambani company RNRL in December 2006.

The RNRL challenged the government decision in the Bombay High Court and the High Court on June 15, 2009, directed RIL to supply gas to RNRL at the rate of dollar 2.34 per unit as per the agreement of family MoU dated June 18, 2005.The arguments will continue.