After seeking natural gas from Reliance Industries, state-run NTPC is now opposed to the fuel being sold to its joint venture Dabhol power plant.
NTPC, which vehemently opposed RIL’s plea for not selling its Bay of Bengal field gas to the state-run firm due to an ongoing court case, is now pointing at the same dispute in opposing sale of K-G D6 gas to Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL).
The RGPPL board is split on sourcing gas from RIL, a company official said. “NTPC opposes the move, while other promoter Gail is in favour of it.”
The government has allocated 2.7 million cubic metres per day of gas from RIL’s K-G D6 fields to RGPPL for the period till September 2009 and 8.5 mmcmd thereafter, to help nation’s largest gas-fired power plant reduce its reliance on imported fuel.
RGPPL was ready to sign the gas sales and purchase agreement (GSPA) contract to buy gas at $4.20 per million British thermal unit, 25 per cent cheaper than the cost of imported fuel but NTPC objected to it and wanted the board to decide.
“The Board meets on May 8 to consider the GSPA,” he said.
NTPC too has been allocated 2.67 mmcmd gas from K-G D6 for its plants but it is not yet signing the GSPA and has sought legal opinion. It had fought RIL’s opposition saying its legal battle with Mukesh Ambani company was for future projects and its current plants were entitled to get gas from the nation’s largest gas field.
Except NTPC and RGPPL, RIL has signed gas sale contracts with all of the buyers of 18 mmcmd gas from K-G D6 that the government has earmarked for the power sector.
“NTPC had in 2007 blocked RIL proposal to meet the entire gas requirement of Dabhol citing the court case,” the official said. RGPPL currently has a contract with Petronet LNG Ltd to buy 5.4 million cubic metres per day of imported LNG till September at $5.52 per mmBtu. The delivered price comes to $6.32 per mmBtu while that of K-G D6 gas would be $5.4.
The Mumbai-based firm had in February opposed the sale of gas to NTPC as the government-owned firm had cited a case in the Bombay High Court for not only refusing to participate in the process of discovering the price of KG-D6 gas but to block moves to sell the fuel to the Dabhol power plant.
