Deora wants new ministers group set up for RIL gas
31 Aug 2009
Petroleum minister Murli Deora has sought constitution of a second empowered group of ministers (eGoM) to decide on the allocation of gas from the RIL-operated KG-D6 field to new customers.
Deora has formally written to the cabinet secretary for reconstitution of the eGoM on the lines of the previous group of ministers headed by the then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee. Deora also met T K A Nair, principal secretary to the prime minister yesterday.
The previous eGoM had allocated the first 40 mmscmd of gas from KG-D6 among fertiliser, power, city gas, LPG plants and the steel sector.
RIL now has the capacity to produce close to 60 mmscmd of gas and it has been held back for lack of government-identified gas consumers.
Meanwhile, the government-identified consumers for the initial 40 mmscmd of gas - NTPC, Ratnagiri Gas and Power, Essar and GAIL - are yet to draw a single unit, RIL's petroleum business chief P M S Prasad said in a recent letter to petroleum secretary R S Pandey.