The Hindu : National : Energy panel may not meet today

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Thursday, Jul 12, 2007
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National

Energy panel may not meet today

Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI: With the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) yet to finalise and submit its report on the issue of availability and pricing of natural gas, a meeting of the Energy Coordination Committee (ECC), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh scheduled for Thursday, is unlikely to take place as scheduled.

Although no official announcement was made on postponing the meeting, the Ministries concerned of Power, Petroleum, Fertilizer and Coal have been informally sounded about the ECC meeting getting postponed. Earlier also the meeting of the ECC, scheduled for June 26, had been postponed to July 12.

Gas pricing

The issue of natural gas pricing has turned into a war of words between the Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Energy Limited headed by his younger brother, Anil Ambani.

The state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has also advocated an administered price regime, a view that is shared by a senior member of the Planning Commission also who wants the Government to play a role in the pricing formula.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had set up a CoS to look into the pricing of gas from Reliance Industries’ KG basin block and it has held interaction with all the stakeholders including the Ministries concerned, PSUs and private companies. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has also urged the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of the Chief Ministers of various States to debate the issue of pricing of the KG Basin gas and its allocation arguing that the matter concerned the States and consumers and should not be left for a decision in the hands of private companies.

Mr. Reddy has been very vocal on the issue demanding that Andhra Pradesh be given preference in allocation of gas from the KG basin and that also on reasonable terms.

“The ECC will wait for the report of the CoS on the gas pricing issue and then only decide to summon a meeting. With a large number of stakeholders and interests of the consumers involved, the ECC would like to take a holistic view and then decide on the final formula,” a senior official stated.

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