Govt allows Reliance, others to sell gas to affiliates; marketing freedom to benefit Cairn, Focus

New Delhi: An affiliate of a producer such as Reliance Industries NSE -0.33 % will now be able to bid for natural gas in an auction, according to a policy approved by the Cabinet, which also allowed marketing freedom to operators of fields that already had pricing freedom.

Vedanta will benefit from the latest policy move as its prolific Rajasthan block has only pricing freedom. With GAIL being the sole gas buyer nominated by the government for the Rajasthan block, Vedanta had found it hard to negotiate an optimal price. ET first reported in January that the government was considering such a proposal.