Three gas-based power projects, developed by Reliance Power, Lanco and GMR in Andhra Pradesh that are ready for regular power generation, are sitting idle due to lack of gas allocation from Reliance Industries (RIL) owned D6 Block in Krishna-Godavari basin in the East coast.
While two power projects developed by Reliance Power and Lanco group separately may get gas for the trial run, GMR Rajahmundry Energy Ltd - located at Vemagiri with 384 MW capacity and already synchronised to the grid - is still waiting for the gas for its regular power generation, a senior state government official said.
He said the government received requisitions from the power projects - Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power's 2,400 MW power project at Samalkot and 742-MW, Phase-III unit of Lanco Kondapalli Power for allocation of gas for trial purpose.
"We have received requests from Reliance and Lanco for diversion of gas for testing and commissioning purpose. We are going to recommend to the Ministry of Petroleum for the allocation of gas," the official told PTI, adding the GMR Vemagiri plant is yet to get gas for full scale power generation.
As all the three projects are implemented under the 11th plan, it is necessary that they should be synchronised before the end of the plan-March 31, the official added.
Though the projects are ready from commissioning, gas availability from D-6 for regular production still remains uncertain as the Petroleum Ministry's directive clearly says that the gas allocation is done to those plants which have signed Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), the bureaucrat explained.
As both the plants of Reliance and Lanco have no Fuel Supply Agreement, they are not eligible from PPA, the official said.
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"We require about 0.3 million metric standard cubic metre of gas. We have been asking for the gas for the past four months. If they give gas today, we run the project in the next 24 hours," a Lanco official said.
Going by the gas production trends of D-6, the gas availability chances appear to be meagre, in the near future, according to industry sources.
Production volumes declined due to reservoir complexity and natural decline in reserves in the KG-D6 block, RIL said during Q3 results announcement.
"For 9M FY12, production from KG-D6 was 3.87 million barrels of crude oil, and 436.40 [billion cubic feet] BCF of natural gas, reduction of 39.8% and 21.9%, respectively as compared to 9M FY11.Gas production for this quarter was 136 BCF as compared to 147 BCF in the previous quarter," RIL had said.