Reacting to Deora's statement, Ambani said he was happy to hear the government stand, based on the recommendations of a ministerial group, that gas should be supplied to his group's Dadri power project in Uttar Pradesh from the fields allocated to Reliance Industries.

'I welcome the honourable petroleum minister's statement in parliament today, reaffirming the availability of gas for Reliance Power's proposed project to be built at the Dhirubhai Ambani Energy City at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh,' he said.

'Since the minister has made a comment that the Dadri plant is not yet operational or functional, I would like to clarify that this situation has been caused solely by Reliance Industries' malafide conduct in consistently refusing to provide a bankable gas supply agreement to Reliance Natural Resources and NTPC.'

Yet, Anil Ambani said, Minister Deora's statement had also led to some concerns, mainly over the level of production from the Krishna-Godavari basin, over which his Reliance Natural Resources is fighting a bitter legal battle with Reliance Industries.

Referring to the statement, Anil Ambani said Reliance Industries was pumping 31 million units of gas from the fields since April even though it should have gone up to 80 million by June-July after an initial level of 40 million. He wondered why it should take one more year to reach the optimal level.

'This is truly surprising. Why is Reliance Industries producing less? The answer is simple. The production is artificially being kept at lower levels by Reliance Industries, owing to the lack of demand at the present exorbitant price of $4.2 per unit,' he said.

Deora said as per the government's gas utilisation policy, 15 million units per day was allocated to existing urea plants, 18 million units to existing power plants, 3 million units to distributors of cooking gas and another 5 million units for cooking gas for cities through pipelines.

He said the Bombay High court judgment in May upholding the agreement between the two Ambani brothers had 'implications on the government's rights to formulate and implement the gas utilisation policy under the production-sharing contract'.

This pact provides for 28 mmscmd to RNRL, 12 mmscmd to NTPC and the remaining to be shared between RIL and RNRL at a ratio of 60:40, he said.

The formula will be applicable not just to Krishna-Godavari fields, but also to future discoveries and production by Reliance Industries, Deora said, adding: 'Under the circumstances, it was necessary to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court and accordingly action has been taken.'