The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (Aperc) has selected four gas-based power plants to make use of their idle capacity for generating additional power using liquified natural gas (LNG) under the expensive power supply scheme (EPSS) proposed by the discoms.

The EPSS is meant to supply electricity to the willing consumers, mostly from the industrial sector, beyond the existing supply restrictions at the rates outside the normal tariff.

State-owned power generator is setting up first block of 700 Mw combined cycle power plant

The Karnataka government has approved the proposal of Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL), the state-owned power generator, to procure liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the first block of its proposed 700 Mw Bidadi Combined Cycle Power Plant (BCCP) through a 100 per cent on spot market basis from Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL).

A committee headed by C Rangarajan, the head of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory, has suggested linking the price of domestically-produced natural gas to international benchmarks such as US’

Even as India and Russia agreed to further deepen co-operation in the energy sector fissures remain between the two sides over the grant of special treatment on investments made by the two countries in telecom and oil sectors.

At the end of the 13th Annual Summit between India and Russia, the two sides remained divided over giving tax incentives to ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) for its investment in Imperial Energy as Russia is understood to linked the issue with grant to special privileges to its own telecom entity Seistema that has lost its licence due to recent Supreme Court order.

The panel, headed by Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan, was tasked to suggest design of future contracts for exploration and production of oil and gas

The Rangarajan committee is believed to have suggested a complex pricing formula that will lead to near-doubling of the natural gas price to about $8 (Rs 439). However, it is unclear if this will override the price discovery mechanism set out in current oil and gas contracts.

Fertiliser majors waiting to make investments in new urea plants have reasons to cheer as the government has promised, subject to a ceiling, it would cover the additional cost from natural gas imports given the paucity of domestic gas.

Currently, the Asian spot price of the feedstock, which forms over three-fourths of the cost of production of fertilisers, is $14 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu), while the domestic gas is priced at $4.2/mmBtu. The government has said it would bear the difference in costs arising out of the fertiliser companies importing gas to meet their needs, to the extent the imported gas price is below $14/mmBtu.

The fertiliser ministry has opposed Reliance Industries' demand for hiking the KG-D6 gas price in line with the Asian LNG spot price, effective from April 2014. The ministry wants the price to be not more than $8/mmBtu.

RIL pitched for the gas price, post March 2014, to be about 10% below the spot price of LNG imported from Qatar — $12-13 at current rates. According to sources, during discussions with the government, the fertiliser ministry contended that such a price (on which consumers will have to pay an extra $1-1.5 to cover transporation charges and marketing margins) is not viable for the fertiliser industry whose output is highly subsidised, adding that any such move will cause a burden on the exchequer.

Biometric cards to be issued to fishermen in the area

The government will not declare a ban on fishing in the area around the LNG terminal at Puthuvypeen as part of security measures, Minister for Fisheries K. Babu has said. Replying to a calling attention motion moved by S.Sharma in the Assembly on Tuesday, he said the Indian Navy had not sought a ban on fishing in the area around the terminal. “They have only asked the State government to take steps for proper surveillance,” he said.

The 879-km Phase-II pipeline to Mangalore and Bangalore in Karnataka is under implementation and “the actual physical progress of the project is 64.1 per cent”

State-owned GAIL India Ltd has completed the first phase of pipeline that will connect the upcoming LNG import facility at Kochi to consumers in Karnataka and Kerala.