New Delhi: State-run power utility NTPC Ltd
has signed an agreement to buy gas from GAIL India for 10
years at a delivered price of close to USD 8 per million
British thermal unit.
NTPC will buy 2 million standard cubic meters per day of
gas for 10 years beginning fourth quarter of 2009, a company
official said.
GAIL has committed to sell the liquefied natural gas
(LNG) to be imported from Qatar at Petronet LNG Ltd's Dahej
terminal in Gujarat. The ex-terminal price will be the pooled
price or the average of long-term and short term LNG being
imported by PLL.
The pool price currently is USD 6.29 per mmBtu without
including the cost of transportation, taxes and marketing
margins. The delivered price at NTPC plants, the official
said, will be close to USD 8 per mmBtu.
The price is higher than USD 4.2 per mmBtu rate at which
Reliance Industries sells gas from its KG-D6 fields. The
delivered price of KG-D6 gas at NTPC's plants in Delhi would
be USD 6.7 per mmBtu.
Industry sources said government has offered KG-D6 gas to
NTPC but the firm has chosen to buy expensive imported fuel.
It has in fact floated another tender to buy 1.9 mmsmcd of gas
for six months beginning September. Besides GAIL, Indian Oil
and Bharat Petroleum are likely to bid for the tender quoting
the R-LNG pooled price.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, August 21, 2009, 14:16