Anil Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Power, has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding the allocation of natural gas to the firm's Samalkot power plant in Andhra Pradesh, saying the Rs 10,000 crore unit is awaiting fuel supply to be fully commissioned.
In a January 10 letter, Ambani sought 9.6 million cubic metres per day of gas for the 2,400-MW power plant.
Reliance Power's Samalkot power plant is ready for commissioning and the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Pranab Mukherjee should be convened soon to consider the allocation of gas to the plant, he wrote.
"It has been over 18 months since the last meeting of the EGoM in July, 2010, and many projects such as Samalkot are awaiting gas allocation for their commissioning activities," Ambani said, adding that Samalkot fulfills all requirements for gas allocation as outlined by the Gas Utilisation Policy.
Sources said the meeting of the EGoM on natural gas allocation is slated for February 14, but with output from Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 fields dipping by over 35 per cent to less than 39 mmcmd, it would have few options other than shuffling current allocations so that the priority sector gets more gas.
The Samalkot project will be the nation's largest gas-based power project.
"We understand that there are short-term gas shortages on the supply front, hence we have also requested, in line with the Saumitra Chaudhari committee report on pooling of gas prices, that the gas allocated to non-priority sectors be reallocated to the priority sectors of power and fertiliser," he added.
Further, the company wanted all available gas for the power sector be provided to all projects on an equitable basis so that they can achieve minimum viability until supplies ramp-up.
Ambani sought "allocation of domestic natural gas by the EGoM to the Samalkot power plant so that it can be fully commissioned and operational at the earliest to reduce the power deficit in the southern region."
Also, "Available domestic gas (should) be distributed to all existing and upcoming gas based power projects on a pro-rata basis," he added.