HC stays ONGC tender as GMR seeks gas for its plants

GAS OUTPUT RISES 23% AS RIL-BP FIELDS START PRODUCTION

New Delhi, May 21: The Delhi High Court has put on hold state-run ONGC's notice inviting tender (NIT) and the consequent e-auction with regard to sale of natural gas from its block in the KrishnaGodavari (KG) basin in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.

A bench of Chief Justice D. N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said a prima facie case is made out in favour of the petitioners— two GMR group companies—and balance of convenience was also in their favour, as finalisation of the bidding would cause irreparable loss to them.

"We, therefore, stay the operation, implementation, execution and finalisation of the NIT dated April 12, 2021 as well as corrigendum to the NIT issued on April 27, 2021 and the consequent e-auction, till the next date of hearing," the bench said in its May 20 order.

With the observation the court listed on June 4 the pleas by GMR Vemagiri Power Generation Ltd and GMR Rajamundhry Energy Ltd challenging the NIT and seeking a stay

Delhi, May 21: India's natural gas production jumped 22.7 per cent in April after Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner BP Plc ramped up output from their eastern offshore KG-D6 block, government data released on Friday showed.

India produced 2.65 billion cubic meters of natural gas in April, up from 2.16 bcm in the same month last year, as per the data released by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

While state-owned ONGC’s production was

on any new allocation or allotment of gas from the KG-basin of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

Under the April 12 NIT, ONGC had invited bids in respect of 2.0 million metric standard cubic metre per day (mmscmd) of gas from its KG-basin in Kakinada. flat at 1.72 bcm, output from fields operated by the private sector and joint ventures tripled to 710.86 million standard cubic meters. The bulk of this came from 409.12 mmcm output from eastern offshore fields.

The data did not give individual field productions.

Reliance-BP, which in December last year started putting the second wave of gas discoveries in KG-D6 block to production, last month started output from the Satellite Cluster fields.

The companies have sought a stay on any further allocation on the ground that the Centre and ONGC failed to deliver the gas allocation assured to them.

They have also told the court that pursuance to the Centre and ONGC's assurance they have made substantial investments to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore.

The two companies had also contended that there was a stress faced by the power sector and the result of the e-auction would be that the natural gas will be supplied to the other sectors at a higher price.

They have also claimed that the auction was in complete variance with the statutory framework for allocation of coal for coal based power projects.

The two companies have also challenged a March 21, 2016 notification of the petroleum ministry that provides for forward auction—gas would be allocated to the highest bidder—and they have contended that this would be discriminatory to them.

The two companies had told the bench that if the auction was not stayed, they will be compelled to bid and participate in the e-auction for procuring allocation of the gas, which was to be allocated to them as per the assurances of the Centre and ONGC and therefore, irreparable loss and injury would be caused to them.