New Delhi, April 25: Admonishing the defiant Reliance Industries, the Oil Ministry has ordered the Mukesh Ambani-run firm to immediately stop natural gas sales to non-core users like Essar Steel to meet the full demand of fertilizer and power plants.
Citing the May, 2010, Supreme Court ruling that upheld the government’s right to frame gas utilisation policy, the ministry last week wrote to Reliance directing it to first supply natural gas from its KG-D6 fields to priority sectors like fertiliser and power, official sources said.
Reliance is currently producing around 50 million cubic metres a day of gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 gas block, just enough to meet contracted demand of priority sectors — urea manufacturing units, power plants, LPG extraction plants and city gas distribution companies.
-Agencies