RIL inks gas supply pacts with power firms

However, it is yet to sign the Gas Supply and Purchase Agreement (GPSA) with state-run NTPC Ltd and Ratnagiri Gas and Power, the owner of the Dabhol power plant.

NTPC is to get 2.67 million cubic metres per day of gas from KG-D6 while Dabhol has been allocated 2.7 mmcmd.

"Ratnagiri Gas and Power cannot immediately take KG-D6 gas and so it has not signed the GSPA, which has provisions of take-or-pay," a Government official said. "In the case of NTPC, RIL has sent a draft GSPA and the agreement is likely to be signed soon."

The power sector had been allocated 18 mmcmd gas out of the initial 40 mmcmd volumes from KG-D6. Gas of 6.22 mmcmd would go to eight power plants in Andhra Pradesh, the landfall point of the gas from the Bay of Bengal fields.

Essar's 300 MW power plant in Gujarat will get 1.08 mmcmd while ADAG's 220-MW Samalkot plant in Andhra Pradesh will get 0.19 mmcmd.

Gas will be sold at government-approved rates of $4.20 per million British thermal unit plus taxes and transportation, the official said.

Company officials could not be reached for comments. RIL had last month signed GSPAs with 12 fertiliser firms committing the first 15.3 mmcmd of KG-D6 gas.

Though RIL was promised marketing freedom when it won the KG-D6 block in the Bay of Bengal in international tender, it has been stripped of all its rights and is being forced to sell the fuel from its discoveries it made in the block to customers identified by the government.

RIL is currently producing just under 12 mmcmd of gas from the Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in the deepsea Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 and output is expected to touch 20 mmcmd by next month. It will reach 40 mmcmd by June.

The official said RIL had signed Gas Sales and Purchase Agreements to sell 9.2 mmcmd of gas to four independent power producers -- 664-MW Gautami Plant, 204-MW Spectrun, 370-MW Vemagiri and 445-MW Konasemma power plant -- and GVK Power's two electricity generating units in Andhra Pradesh.

An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) had on April 9 approved sale of 18 mmcmd KG-D6 gas to power plants.

The Gautami combined-cycle power project (CCPP) would get 1.73 mmcmd, Konesemma CCP 1.66 mmcmd, Godavari or Spectrun 0.78 mmcmd and Vemagiri CCP 1.38 mmcmd. Also in Andhra Pradesh, the 350-MW Kondapalli power plant would get 1.31 mmcmd.