EGoM to consider 5 more states for gas allocation

Five more power plants will now be considered for gas allocation by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM). These five companies have been added to the list though a supplementary agenda moved by the petroleum ministry, reports CNBC-TV18’s Mehak Kasbekar.

Here is a verbatim transcript of her comments. Also watch the accompanying video.

Mehak Kasbekar, CNBC-TV18

Excerpts from India Business Hour on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »


Its an extremely interesting twist as far as gas allocation is concerned. We are now looking at Petroleum Ministry really batting for public sector units, already there was an agenda note which was cleared by the petroleum ministry but the EGoM unfortunately didn’t take place.

Now the EGoM will take place in the first week of December and there will be five new plants that will be added taking the total to about 14 plants. Five chief ministers of different states have written to the petroleum ministry directly saying that they were not on that proposed list of nine by the power ministry and since these power plants are important for state governments and state utilities they have the right to be on that agenda.

Petroleum ministry seems to be convinced about this and infact what it mentions is primarily the letter written by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister seeking about 9.72 mmscmd for the APGENCO power plant of about 2700 megawatts each. Its not really clear, how much will this add to the entire capacity, but approximately this will be about 20 to 25 mmscmd for PSUs.