GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat's dream of becoming the 'gas gateway' to North India received strong financial backing worth Rs 4,500 crore from a dozen-odd nationalized banks on Monday, when state-sector com

New Delhi A new policy on natural gas allocation for the next 10 years that is under discussion will benefit gas trading companies like Gail India but will make consumers pay more for not only power but also a clutch of industrial goods. It could also upset the government’s plan to reduce the subsidy on fertilisers.

This policy envisages mandatory use of imported liquefied natural gas or LNG (a minimum of 25% of the fuel/feedstock mix), which is substantially costlier than domestic natural gas that is expected to be in short supply.

A landslide swept through two villages in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, covering much of the settlements in mud and leaving up to 40 people missing, officials and residents told Australian media.

Shell and Total, operators of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Hazira in Gujarat, have decided to take the terminal's annual capacity to 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

The terminal at present operates at a capacity of 3.6 million tonne (mt). By 2013, this would be expanded to five mt. “With new gas pipelines being laid and LNG consumption in the country on an increase, more gas would be required. To meet the market requirement for future we intend to increase the terminal's capacity to 10 mtpa,” a senior company executive told Business Standard on condition of anonymity.