Govt relook at gas policy to rescue power plants

NEW DELHI: Oil minister M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday said he would ask the government to take a relook at the priority list drawn up in 2007 for earmarking domestic natural gas as supply shortage threatens to put Rs 100,000 crore invested in power plants at stake.
“Scarcity of gas is a great problem. I cannot produce gas just like that... Our ministry has to go by the decision of the EGoM (empowered group of ministers) regarding allocation and priority for supply of gas.One way to change the same is to convene a meeting of EGoM,” Moily said after meeting promoters of private generating companies . Moily’s office was the first stop for Anil Ambani of Reliance Power, G M Rao of GMR Group, G V K Reddy of GVK Group and Madhusudhan Rao of Lanco as they blazed a power trail through the national Capital’s corridors in search for gas. They later met Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to push their case.
The industry leaders, under the aegis of Association of Power Producers, told Moily and Ahluwalia that 15,000 mw of gasfired plants were getting gas from domestic fields for only 10% of their need, rendering their operations unsustainable and unviable. In addition, 8,700 mw of new gas-based capacities were stranded without the fuel. The power producers sought changing the priority list to accord equal priority to power and fertilizer units so that domestic gas is equally distributed.