The four companies - ONGC, GAIL, BPCL and IOC - are of the opinion that NTPC cannot pick up a stake in another venture when it has already committed itself to sourcing LNG from Petronet's $700 million Dahej terminal. NTPC has also been assured equity in Petronet LNG at the expense of IOC and BPCL. "This is not acceptable as the company wants to have its cake and eat it too," sources said.

It remains to be seen if the PSU quartet will protest jointly to the petroleum ministry though the reports doing the rounds in Delhi suggest that it would only be an exercise in futility. "Finally, it is the government that is the deciding authority and no number of protests are going tp help," sources said.

The ministry of power was of the view that NTPC should be allotted a berth in the company as it would be thelargest user of LNG for its power projects. None of the oil companies is ready to dilute its holding to accommodate NTPC and, finally, the petroleum ministry asked both IOC and BPCL to step down so that three entities -- ONGC, GAIL and NTPC -- would hold 16.66 per cent equity each.

The ministry of finance was, however, categoric that the boards of BPCL and IOC should approve of their ouster which was clearly not the case. IOC, in particular, reiterated that there was no way it would step down as LNG was going to be a key area of its operations in the future. Pressure continued from the power ministry to open the doors to NTPC and it is the new government that will now have to take a decision on the matter.

Even at that time, the oil PSUs reiterated that NTPC should confine its stake to Petronet's Dahej terminal and not go in for another investment in the Pipavav terminal. It may be recalled that very recently, GAIL also decided to opt out of the Pipavav plan on the same grounds of being aligned with acompeting venture. IOC, in the meantime, is believed to have asked for a 51 per cent stake in Petronet Dahej if has to step down from the equity of the holding company. There is no indication of the petroleum ministry's reaction to the IOC offer though experts say that this would call for some introspection. One option is to coerce the Fortune 500 company to settle for 26 per cent at Petronet Dahej so that other companies can be given stakes in the project.

The other is to stretch the offer to the other subsidiary, Petronet Cochin, where a $500 million terminal is sought to be built.