Essar Group and the Anil Ambani group are in talks to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran even as the government seeks the honouring of its LNG import deal with Tehran, oil minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.

Murli Deora said he met the Iranian ambassador to India on Tuesday in New Delhi and was asked to endorse a private company to buy LNG while government-level talks continued. “I have told them we would prefer you to honour the government-to-government commitment and then you are most welcome to sell it (LNG) to private parties,” Deora said.

He said two or three Indian private firms — including Essar and the Anil Ambani group — were talking to Iran. GAIL (India) Ltd, Indian Oil Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd in June 2005 signed a deal with Iran to import 5 million tonnes of LNG annually over a 25-year period from 2009.

The deal, with an option to buy an extra 2.5 million tonnes a year, would help tie-up supplies for the energy-starved nation. But Iran in May last year had said that its Supreme Economic Council had not approved the deal, priced at $3.25 per million British thermal units, after a sharp rise in oil prices, and said it was demanding more.