NTPC Trebles Natural Gas Procurement From RIL (11-Mar-2010)
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd. has said that it has tripled the volume of natural gas that it buys from Reliance Industries at the government-approved price of $4.2 per mBtu, to 1.81 mn standard cubic meters a day (mscmd).
Till last month, NTPC was buying 0.61 mscmd from RIL''s eastern offshore KG-D6 field, and to boost the power generation now the NTPC has begun drawing an additional 1.2 mscmd of gas.
In October 2009, the government had allocated an additional 3.85 mscmd gas to NTPC. Since NTPC did not want to use the KG-D6 gas at its Kawas and Gandhar power plants in Gujarat that are connected with pipelines ferrying KG-D6 gas from the Andhra coast, a complex swap arrangement was worked out with state-owned gas utility GAIL India.
As per the arrangement, GAIL diverted gas from other sources to NTPC plants and supplied RIL gas to its existing customers.
Besides, limitations in GAIL''s pipeline capacity restricted the swap to only 1.2 mscmd.
As it is seeking RIL gas for expansion projects at the 2 sites at rates lower than the government approved price, now the NTPC does not want to use KG-D6 gas at its Kawas and Gandhar plants in Gujarat.
The company wants that as per the tender quoted by RIL in a 2004, which states that the RIL would supply gas at $2.34 per mBtu.
NTPC, which was till now using KG-D6 gas at its Anta plant in the National Capital Region (NCR), had signed for additional volumes on 16th of February.
KG-D6 gas has replaced costly imported LNG at Anta plant to save Rs. 150 crore in power generation cost annually.
Originally, the government had allocated NTPC 2.67 mscmd of gas from KG-D6 fields but the company on 23rd September had signed GSPA for less than one-fourth of the earmarked volumes.
NTPC had signed contracts with RIL to buy 0.13 mscmd of natural gas from KG-D6 for its Faridabad power plant in Haryana, 0.03 mscmd for Anta in Rajasthan and 0.45 mscmd for its Dadri unit in Uttar Pradesh.
However, due to constraints in state-run gas utility GAIL India Ltd''s pipeline to transport KG-D6 gas, all of the 0.61 mscmd would be consumed at Anta plant for the time being.
The 2.67 mscmd originally allocated by the government to NTPC, its Kawas power plant in Gujarat was to get 1.75 mscmd and Gandhar 0.30 mscmd.
Currently, RIL is producing about 62 mscmd of gas from KG-D6.
Top News Today
 Godrej Properties, Mumbai based real estate developer launched its new residential project Godrej Alpine in Mangalore. It aims to complete 499-apartment Godrej Alpine for occupation in 36 months. Godrej
 Mahindra & Mahindra, auto major has stopped the second phase of booking for its latest sports utility vehicle XUV500. It has received over 25,000 orders in a period of 10 days from January 25 to February
 Reliance Power, the Anil Ambani group company's 2,400-MW Samalkot plant in Andhra Pradesh is likely to be ready for electricity generation this fiscal. It will install six gas turbines at the plant having
|
International Stock News
 The US markets rose on Monday, sending the Dow industrials to their highest close since 2008, as Greece's government made progress on measures to secure international aid. Also, a Labor Department report
 The US markets made a mix closing on Thursday, as a drop in jobless claims fueled optimism about the economy and investors looked to the next day's employment report as the next indicator of the economic
 The US markets made a mixed closing on Tuesday, with the indices mostly slipping after US economic data failed to live up to expectation. The reports showed that American consumer confidence trailed estimates
|
|
Recent Corporate-World News
|
|