Reliance Natural Resources Ltd chairman Anil Ambani today once again publicly accused the petroleum ministry of being biased towards Reliance Industries Ltd in the legal dispute over the price of natural gas from RIL's fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

Addressing shareholders of the company, he said the ministry was ''partisan and biased'' in favour of brother and bitter rival Mukesh Ambani's RIL. He added that the government would not lose a single rupee even if the gas from the fields off India's eastern coast were to be supplied to RNRL at the originally contracted price of $2.34 per unit.

"A gas agreement between the two companies is a commercial matter and the oil ministry's intervention in the case being heard by the Supreme Court favours Reliance Industries," Ambani told shareholders in Mumbai in a speech during which he was interrupted by frequent ovations, watched by wife Tina Ambani.

"The gas price of $2.34 per unit was not decided by two brothers on the dinner table," Anil Ambani said, adding the price was based on the prevailing global oil scenario and legitimately approved by the then-united Reliance Industries board in 2005.

''The facts are deliberately being twisted by the oil ministry to say the corporate agreement between Reliance Industries and Reliance Natural Resources is a private division of sovereign assets,'' Ambani added.

Last month, the Bombay High Court had asked Reliance Industries to supply 28 million units of gas to Reliance Natural Resources for 17 years at $2.34 per unit, after assigning 12 million units to the state-run power utility NTPC.

Reliance Industries challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, which heard the case July 20 and fixed 1 September as the next date of hearing. It also asked all the parties to file their replies on the government position on the matter by then.

Anil Ambani said RNRL was not claiming ownership of the gas assets as was being made out by the petroleum ministry, but only staking a legitimate claim over the supplies based on a corporate agreement.

According to him, if the government so desired, it had ample leeway to even take over the gas assets. He also sought to bring to light what he called were questionable actions by the oil ministry ever since changes were made at its top level in 2006. "If Reliance Industries gets a higher sale price from us based on the price of what the petroleum ministry wants to fix for the first few years, 99 per cent of all revenues and profits will go to Reliance Industries," he said. "Only a measly 1 per cent will accrue to government of India."

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora said he could not comment on the scathing accusations levelled against his ministry by Anil Ambani as the matter was sub-judice. Last week, he had called the dispute between the two brothers ''disgusting''. (See: PMO writes to oil ministry over Anil Ambani plaint).

Petroleum secretary R S Pandey, who had sided with his minister at the time, too refused to comment on the younger Ambani's latest salvo.