From time to time I have discussed Peter Lilley's interests in Tethys Petroleum with people on Twitter and have asked people to suggest reasons why it should be seen as a conflict of interest given that Tethys doesn't operate in the UK. I've never had a suggestion put forward in reply, let alone a good one.
For that reason, the news that a formal complaint has been registered against Lilley with the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards appears to me to be of little more than academic interest. As I understand it, a conflict arises if one could be thought to be operating in furtherance of one's private interests rather than the public interest. The complaint apparently relates to speeches Lilley made attacking renewables. It's hard to see how the quantity of renewables in the UK can have any connection to fossil fuel operations in Kazakhstan, and therefore the complaint looks fairly empty.
Desperate stuff, I would say.