Enron Power Corporation has offered to sell surplus LNG from its $1.2 billion power project in Dabhol to Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL). Enron has approached the corporation for selling surplus LNG from Dabhol but has not specified the exact quantum or price, GAIL sources said. "We are still negotiating with Enron on the issue and would decide only after we know the exact details on the quantity and price," GAIL chairman and managing director C R Prasad told PTI. Enron is planning to import about five million tonnes of lng annually from Oman, out of which about 2.5 million tonnes would be for captive consumption by the 2184 mw power plant in Dabhol. Interestingly, GAIL has a 16.5 per cent stake in Petronet LNG.

Policy inadequacies mire captive power generation: Assocham

Inadequacies of governmental policy and guidelines have arrested the growth of captive power generation on the sub-continent, a viable short term solution for the power crisisthat is stifling the country's industry and exports, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) in a statement said on Sunday. It said captive power plants were preferable in the current situation of acute power shortage, against large projects which had protracted gestation periods ranging up to 60 months. Captive power plants have shorter maturity periods and they require fewer approvals from various central and state authorities. However, the country's captive power addition had not grown at an adequate pace as the government's guidelines and policies in this regard were not investor-friendly, Assocham said.

Proposal on Vizag steel plant expansion A proposal for the expansion of the Visakhaptnam steel plant is under the active consideration of the Union government. Disclosing this to newsmen in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, plant chairman and managing director B N Singh said once the proposal was cleared, the plant's capacity would be increased from the present three million tonne to 4.2million tonne by the end of 2003. As per the turn-around strategy, a proposal had been submitted to the government to set off the accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 3.597 crore at the end of March 1989 and the government should give counter guarantee for loans for the development of the plant. The sales turnover had fallen short by Rs 700 crore of Rs 3400 crore fixed for the year 1998-99 due to various factors. A target of Rs 3200 crore has been fixed by the current year, he said.

Pvt power plants fail to take off in MP

No power plant in the private sector in Madhya Pradesh has become operational although MoUs were signed with 17 parties from 1993 to 1998 due to absence of escrow guarantee and lack of financial closing by the companies. Stating this, official sources told PTI in Bhopal on Sunday that the state government had till now provided escrow guarantee to only four out of the 17 parties who were supposed to set up power projects but since they went to court, the matter was pending. Escrowguarantee has been provided to projects based at Pench, Korba East, Bina and Maheshwar. Power shortage to hit GDP growth The inability of the electricity sector to feed the growing requirements of the economy has strangled India's potential of clocking an annual GDP growth of 8.4 per cent, industrial growth of 25 per cent, export growth of 20-25 per cent and generation of 13 million new jobs per year. This assessment is revealed by the Assocham study on the impact of the power shortages on the economy and the vital need for a fillip to captive generation. The study released by the chamber president, K P Singh on Sunday calls for devising a package of measures immediately to put captive generation and distribution of power on a sound footing.

Energy use on transportation to rise

Use of energy for transportation purposes in the developing world is expected to grow at a rate more than double the growth in industrialised countries, a US government report has said. A fast-paced growth of transportationinfrastructure is expected in these countries, with developing Asia and Central and South America expected to account for 42 per cent of the increase in the world's motor vehicle population between 1996 and 2010, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its annual report. consumption per capita was expected to continue to increase, an United States Information Service (USIS) statement said quoting the EIA report.