A high-powered ministerial panel will on Wednesday consider abolishing the priority ranking in natural gas allocation so that the fuel currently consumed by urea plants can also be diverted to fuel-starved power plants.
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Defence Minister A K Antony is to consider an Oil Ministry proposal of abolishing the priority ranking according to which natural gas is first given to urea manufacturing fertiliser plants, then to lPG units, followed by power plants, city gas, steel and refineries.
“The EGoM is meeting tomorrow afternoon. We have presented options and it is for the EGoM to take a call. I can't say anything more than that,” Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters here.The current priority ranking meant when output from Reliance Industries' eastern offshore KG-D6 fields started falling in 2011, supplies to refineries was cut first, then steel and city gas sectors.
From November 2011, supplies to 25 power plants, which had signed for 29.74 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of KG-D6, were pro-rata cut and this year completely stopped as KG-D6 output kept falling.From June 1, supplies to lPG plants, which had contracted 2.59 mmscmd of KG-D6 gas, too has stopped as current production of just over 14 mmscmd was sufficient to meet the full requirement of fertiliser sector only.