Short supply of gas hits power plants in Gujarat

Jyotsna Bhatnagar

Ahmedabad, July 17: Even as power plants all over the country are trying their level best to switch over to gas as the preferred fuel over naphtha on account of economies of scale, power plants in Gujarat are heading for a crisis with the availability of gas falling far short of demand. To add to their woes, the Centre too has shot down the state’s demand for an additional 0.5 million metric standard cubic metres of natural gas per day (MMSCMD) on the grounds that it would lead to the curtailment of supplies “to other consumers ex-Hazira and along the HBJ pipeline.”

Highly-placed sources in the state government revealed that at a recently-held meeting between the top brass of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and state government officials, the issue of supplying an additional 1.0 MMSCMD of gas to consumers in Gujarat was taken up at length once again.

Sources disclosed that at the meeting, MOP&G officials clearly stated that the availability of natural gas ex-Hazira is not likely to increase in the near future since “additional gas availability from the Western offshore is not maturing as anticipated earlier.” However, in view of the increased demand for gas in Gujarat, more so following the GEB’s decision to limit its purchase of power from naphtha-based power plants, as well as “keeping in view the commitments made,” the Centre has decided to continue with the additional supply of 0.5 MMSCMD being made by Gail on a “as and when available basis” for a short period till the Pragati Power project is commissioned.

It may be mentioned that the issue of increasing gas supplies to Gujarat by 1.0 MMSCMD had been taken up even last year when the Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel met the Union Minister for Petroleum Ram Naik. Following this, the MOP&G had proposed that the Gujarat government should increase the gas supplies by up to 0.6 MMSCMD to existing consumers in Gujarat who are already having gas allocation along the HBJ pipeline system. On its part, the Gujarat government had suggested that the additional gas may be apportioned between two power plants, namely the 655 MW PowerGen plant at Pagathuan which has recently been acquired by the Hong Kong-based China Light and Power and the state government-owned GIPCL’s two Baroda-based 130 MW gas based power plant which, of late, has been connected to the HBJ pipeline system.

State government sources said that the Gujarat government’s suggestion could, however, not be implemented subsequently since the public-sector NTPC had expressed reservations about the swapping arrangement on the grounds that they were already facing constraints in gas availability for their 648-mw dual fuel Gandhar project and would, therefore, like the additional gas to be given to them.

In view of differences cropping up between the Centre and the state, Gail has been supplying an additional 0.5 MMSCMD of gas to GIPCL on a daily basis from the HBJ system in an attempt to alleviate the crisis temporarily. This, however, has been at the cost of “lower supplies to gas consumers in other states on the HBJ system.”