At present, Torrent does not receive PMT gas, but is counting on supplies from the three fields to run its 1,130 MW plant in Surat, scheduled for commission by the end of 2008.

On June 15, 2006, Torrent had signed a 12-year gas supply contract with Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) for sourcing 0.9 million standard cubic meters per day of PMT gas at 4.75 dollars per million British Thermal Unit (mBtu), the company said in a letter to Petroleum Secretary on December 21, 2007.

"ONGC has earned its reputation of being one of the prestigious Navratna PSUs of the nation. It would be highly important for this Fortune 500 organisation to honour its contractual commitment," Torrent said.

The Petroleum Ministry had last month decided to divert PMT gas to public sector firm GAIL, and bar deliveries to state-owned power utility Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (RRVUNL), for sale at a higher price of 5.7 dollars per mBtu.

"If the government's decision is that GAIL shall be the nominee for sale of gas from PMT fields, ONGC's contract could be assigned to GAIL on back to back basis," Torrent said.

ONGC had in 2005-06 signed three 12-year gas supply contracts with GSPC (1.3 mmscmd), RRVNL (1.5 mmscmd) and Torrent ( 0.9 mmscmd) from its 40 per cent share of PMT gas.

In its letter, Torrent said that both RRVUNL and it were generation units in the priority power sector and were part of the same bidding process conducted by ONGC.

"Since, RRVUNL gas supply is being honoured along with a contracted price of 4.60 dollars per mBtu, we request that TPL's gas supply contract with ONGC should also be honoured with the contracted price of 4.75 dollars per mBtu," Torrent said, adding that the contracted price of 4.75 dollars per mBtu was "apparently" the highest for PMT gas for long-term supplies in the bid process. Also, this price was higher than the recently market discovered price of 4.20 dollars per mBtu for Reliance Industries Ltd's KG-D6 gas, it added.