New Delhi The oil ministry has decided to cancel permits issued to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s privately owned RGTIL to lay four natural gas pipelines saying there were inordinate delays in construction of the 2,175-km lines.

The ministry refused to buy RGTIL’s argument that the government has already allocated all of the projected 91 mmscmd gas output from the KG-D6 fields to customers in Andhra Pradesh, Maharasthra and other northern states, leaving no gas for transportation through its proposed pipelines from Kakinada to Howrah, Chennai, Tuticorin and Mangalore.