NTPC reluctant to buy Reliance gas; Ministry irked

NTPC Ltd's reluctance to buy natural gas from Reliance Industries has angered the petroleum ministry, which wants to reallocate the gas earmarked for the public sector firm among other fuel-deficit power producers.

The ministry on May 12 wrote to the power ministry that NTPC had been allocated 2.67 million cubic metres of gas per day from RIL's KG-D6 fields at the instance of the state-run firm, which said that it needed the fuel desperately to meet the deficit at its plants.

But, NTPC has not come forward to sign the Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement and has not even communicated its intent to do so in future despite RIL sending it the draft agreement, a senior gvernment official said.

Of the 17.99 mmcmd gas allocated to the power sector, gas supply pacts of only 2.67 mmcmd allocated to NTPC remained to be signed. NTPC's opposition has also delayed the GSPA for a separate 2.7 mmcmd allocated to the Dabhol power plant and the same is now slated to be signed next week.

In case NTPC does not want to take the gas, it should state that officially so that the gas can be re-allocated to other fuel-deficit power plants, he said.

Initially RIL opposed selling to NTPC due to an ongoing court case but the state-run firm vehemently challenged it saying its legal battle with the Mukesh Ambani-run company was for future projects and its current plants were entitled to get gas from the nation's largest gas field.