The petroleum Ministry says it is in favour of faster clearance to Vedanta Resources’ 9.6 billion US dollar acquisition of Cairn India. However, the ministry wants state-owned ONGC’s concerns addressed before that. Our correspondent quoting highly placed sources reports, the preconditions include agreeing to ONGC’s demand for recovering the 14,000 crore rupees royalty, the state firm will have to pay on behalf of Cairn India from the sale of oil produced from Rajasthan fields.

Petroleum secretary S Sundareshan had yesterday met chief executives of Vedanta and Cairn Energy. The two sides went through each of the 11 preconditions that petroleum ministry had set for approving the deal.

The Oil Ministry, however, held its ground on the precondition that state-run ONGC’s royalty liability in Cairn India’s mainstay Rajasthan block will have to be addressed before such approval.