The government has given Gail (India) time until March 31, 2005, to sort out pricing of natural gas produced from Tapti fields with British energy firm BG Group, after which BG and its partners - ONGC and Reliance Industries - will market the gas directly.Petroleum Secretary S C Tripathi, at a November 30 meeting called to break the deadlock between BG-ONGC-RIL and Gail over pricing of natural gas produced at Mid and South Tapti, ruled that since significant time had passed "there is no other alternative but to allow JV companies to market the Tapti gas directly." BG-ONGC-RIL, the joint operators of Panna/Mukta and Tapti fields, currently sell natural gas produced from the field to Gail at $3.11 per million British thermal unit (MBTU) and have now sought increase in gas price to $5.57 per mbtu, saying the production sharing contract of the field provided for an increase after seven years of production.
