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• Promoters of private power projects, facing fuel shortage due to a drastic fall in output from Reliance Industries Ltd's Andhra offshore field, on Wednesday asked the government to divert gas from other fields being supplied to non-priority sectors for generating electricity.Promoters of power companies, including Reliance Power's Anil Ambani and Tata group's Cyrus Mistry, on Wednesday met PM's principal secretary Pulok Chatterji and sought gas allocation on priority basis for power plants that are stranded or running at low capacity due to fuel shortage.The promoters, under the umbrella of Association of Power Producers, suggested that gas from fields of Reliance Industries and state-run ONGC be pooled together and distributed among power projects on a pro-rata basis.The government had implemented pooled pricing with imported gas to keep fuel price for restarting Dabhol power plant low.
• ONGC produces gas from fields that were given to it without bidding. The government distributes the gas which, however, costs the same as RIL's supplies - $4.20 per unit excluding taxes and transportation charges. Over seven mcmd (million cubic meters per day) of this gas is supplied to non-priority sectors.Since the output from Reliance Industries' field has dropped to about 35 mcmd, the government cut supplies to non-essential industries such as petrochemicals and refineries. Most of this gas is supplied to priority sectors of fertilizer and power.Reliance has indicated that output from its field would dip to 27 mcmd next fiscal and to 22 mcmd in the year thereafter.

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