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| EGoM skips discussion on gas to ADAG power plants |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 28, 2010, 20:33 IST |
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The much-talked meeting of a ministerial panel today skipped discussion on allocating natural gas to Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) power plants even as it asked the oil ministry to indicate availability of the fuel in the next few years that can be assigned to new customers.
The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was presented a brief of the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries and ADAG firm Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) case by the Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran.
"There was no mention of natural gas that has been sought by ADAG post the judgment," a minister who attended the meeting said.
ADAG has sought a minimum quantity of 28 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas for 17 years for its power plants at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, Shahapur in Maharashtra, Samalkot in Andhra Pradesh and Jambusar in Gujarat. While Samalkot is an expansion of existing power plant, others are greenfield projects.
"They (ADAG) had indicated that Samalkot expansion plant will need gas by 2013. But no allocation was discussed for any unit," he said.
Briefing reporters after the meeting that lasted over an hour, Oil Secretary S Sundareshan said: "Petroleum Ministry is to indicate gas availability in coming years to Department of Fertilizer and Ministry of Power. They will give their requirements, based on that we will again go to the EGoM for new allocations."
The EGoM, he said, has allocated about 63 mmscmd of output from RIL's KG-D6 fields to customers in fertilizer, power, petrochemical, steel and refineries sector.
Since RIL has stated that it can produce only 60 mmscmd from KG-D6 consistently, the EGoM decided that 3 mmscmd of gas to be produced by state-owned ONGC from its western offshore C-Series fields will be allocated to customers around Uran region in Maharashtra, he said.
The customers whose allocation was shifted from KG-D6 to C-Series fields included ONGC's LPG unit that was allocated 0.4 mmscmd of RIL gas. The EGoM decided to cancel ONGC's allocation and C-Series gas would be made available to it.
Customers for 2.1 mmscmd of KG-D6 will be allocated C-Series gas, he said.
While KG-D6 gas is priced at $4.20 per million British thermal unit, the price for ONGC's C-Series gas has been fixed at $5.25 per mmBtu.
Sundareshan said RIL will hit peak output of 80 mmscmd from KG-D6 in 2012-13 while 9-12 mmscmd of gas would be produced from ONGC's new fields. Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) would produce around 8 mmscmd from its KG basin fields to help raise domestic output to 186 mmscmd from current 142 mmscmd.
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