National Thermal Power Corporation has extended by two weeks to May 12 the last date for bidding for its mega LNG supply tender, to enable Royal Dutch/Shell to cobble a joint bid with French oil giant Total.

"We have extended the last date of bidding for the tender from April 27 to May 12," NTPC chairman and managing director C P Jain told PTI in New Delhi.

Besides Shell, others in the race to ship liquefied natural gas include Petronas of Malaysia and Yemen LNG. Reliance Industries has offered to pipe natural gas from its gigantic gas field in Bay of Bengal to fire NTPC's 1300 MW power plants at Kawas and Gandhar in Gujarat.

While Jain did not give reasons for extending the deadline, sources said Shell, which is in the fray for both supplying 3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas and for providing import and regassifiation terminal services, had sought extension of the April 27 bid submission deadline to firm up a joint bid with Total's subsidiary Yemen LNG.

Total, which last month acquired 26 per cent stake in Shell's under-construction 2.5 million tonnes LNG import and re-gassification terminal at Hazira in Gujarat, holds 36 per cent in Yemen LNG.

"The two are likely to come together for the NTPC tender with Total supplying the LNG and Shell its Hazira terminal to regassify it," they said.

For the services, Shell had bids on its Hazira terminal while Petronet LNG Ltd, a company promoted by public sector Indian Oil Corporation, GAIL, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, had offered the services of its Dahej plant in Gujarat.

Total came in Hazira only with the purpose of supplying LNG to India from its subsidiary Yemen LNG. In the NTPC tender, Shell and Total will synchronise their bids to make LNG sourced from Yemen and regassified at Hazira the cheapest.

"Shell did not have a firm source for supply of LNG and it roped in Total in Hazira project with a view to securing a permanent source," sources said, pointing that though Shell was to complete the Hazira terminal by year end, it had not yet indicated the price of regassified LNG to its potential customers.

In NTPC tender, Total sees a market for the 5.3 million tonnes LNG it has in Yemen and its partnership with Shell will give it a regassification facility in India.

Reliance Industries has proposed to pipe 4 billion cubic metres of gas a year from Bay of Bengal to NTPC's projects in Gujarat while Petronas will supply LNG from its projects in South East Asia to be regassified at either Petronet's Dahej or Shell's Hazira terminal, they said.

NTPC had last year invited tenders for unbundled elements of gas supply. LNG suppliers had to compete with other LNG suppliers and supplier of natural gas from domestic fields.

Regassification of LNG was treated as a separate activity -- getting to supply LNG did not mean getting to set up the import and regassification plan.

Domestic natural gas suppliers had to make integrated bids for gas delivered to the power plant.