NTPC not yet decided on filing petition in gas row with RIL

The NTPC Ltd has not yet decided on filing a petition in Supreme Court on its dispute with the Reliance Industries Ltd for sourcing of natural gas, the Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Wednesday. The state-run firm has been contemplating moving the apex court after the RIL amended its petition in the Bombay High Court to say that it cannot sell gas to the NTPC at the price it had bid in the 2004 tender due to the Government stand on that issue. “That is not yet decided, I think so,” he told CNBC TV18 when asked if the NTPC was leaning towards filing a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court on this issue. The NTPC had in December 2005 dragged the RIL to the Bombay High Court seeking specific performance of the tender bid to sell 12 million standard cubic meters per day of gas at USD 2.34 per million British thermal unit to its Kawas and Gandhar expansion projects.