NTPC needs 30 mmscmd gas for capacity expansion

State-owned power utility NTPC today said it needs 30 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of natural gas for expansion of electricity generation capacity.

"We want 30 mmscmd gas for the expansion of our gas-based plants," NTPC Chairman and Managing Director R S Sharma told reporters here.

This requirement is apart from the 12 mmscmd NTPC is seeking from Reliance Industries for its expansion projects at Kawas and Gandhar in Gujarat under a 2005 tender. The matter is in the Bombay High Court after the two sides disagreed on terms of supplies.

NTPC, he said, currently gets around 10 mmscmd of gas from ONGC and 1.81 mmscmd from RIL's KG-D6 fields at government-approved rates of $4.2 per million British thermal unit.

The government had allocated NTPC 4.46 mmscmd of gas from RIL's eastern offshore KG-D6 fields but it currently draws only 1.81 mmscmd, he said.

Close to 60 per cent of the allocated volumes were for NTPC's Kawas and Gandhar power plants in Gujarat. But the state-owned firm did not want to use KG-D6 gas at these plants since it was in litigation with the Mukesh Ambani firm over fuel supplies to expansion projects planned at these sites.

So, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) last year decided that the state gas utility GAIL India will swap KG-D6 gas with fuel from other fields. Under this scheme, gas from western offshore Panna/Mukta and Tapti (PMT) fields that was currently supplied to NTPC's northern India plants, was to be diverted to Kawas and Gandhar. The deficit at the northern India plants was then to be made up by KG-D6 gas.

It has now been decided that 1.5 mmscmd of PMT gas that is currently being supplied to NTPC's northern power plants would be diverted to Kawas and Gandhar. The northern plants will then be supplied KG-D6 gas.

NTPC has contracted 0.79 mmscmd of KG-D6 gas for its Anta plant in Rajasthan, 0.54 mmscmd for Dadri unit in Uttar Pradesh, 0.26 mmscmd for its Auriya plant in Rajasthan and 0.22 mmscmd at its Faridabad unit in Haryana.With the swap, supplies would go up to 3.31 mmscmd. This would still leave 1.15 mmscmd of allocated quantities to be supplied.

RIL currently produces just over 60 mmscmd of gas as against a potential of 80 mmscmd as government nominated customers like NTPC are yet to offtake their full allocated quantity.KG-D6 gas has replaced costly imported LNG at Anta plant to save Rs 150 crore in power generation cost annually.