Ministries differ on RIL gas sale

The petroleum ministry has turned down the power ministry's plea for "forcing" Reliance Industries to sign an agreement to sell gas to National Thermal Power Corp, saying it can monitor only the development of gas field and cannot dictate to whom the company should sell its gas.

At a recent meeting called by cabinet secretary B K Chaturvedi, power secretary R V Shahi is learnt to have raised the issue of Reliance not signing the agreement with NTPC despite the power utility awarding the contract to supply 3 million tonnes of gas annually to it more than a year ago.

Official sources said petroleum ministry representatives told the meeting that the ministry had set stringent milestones for Reliance to bring to production its gigantic gas field in Krishan Godavari basin in Bay of Bengal.

The ministry said the upstream development was its responsibility and it will ensure those are met but gas sales is a downstream matter and the ministry had no role in it.

Petroleum ministry's stand comes as a setback to the power ministry and NTPC as they fear that delay in signing the gas supply and purchase agreement could impact commissioning of the 1,300 MW each Kawas and Gandhar power plants in Gujarat.

The power ministry wants NTPC to commission the two plants within the 10th plan itself, which is before March 2007. RIL, however, would start gas production only in 2008.