Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has offered to supply natural gas from its gigantic D6 field in Bay of Bengal to NTPC free of cost in exchange for the state-run firm selling the power generated using the feedstock, to it. “RIL has offered NTPC natural gas at free of cost provided the power utility sells electricity generated from it to Reliance at a mutually agreed heat conversion rate,” sources associated with NTPC’s tender for sourcing 3 million tonnes of LNG/natural gas said here.Reliance plans to sell the electricity so procured to customers in Delhi and Mumbai, where its group firm BSES has power distribution rights.Sources said the offer was made during the post-bid negotiations NTPC is having with the bidders who had submitted technical and price bids for the tender, which requires volumes of 12 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas or 3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over a 17-year term.NTPC, they say, has imposed stringent conditions like parent company balance sheet support and a delivered price of $3 per million btu (British thermal unit) as it feels the gas business is too “risky.”
