Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore will get long and short-term supply of natural gas at “affordable rate”. The actual cost of the fuel and feedstock is expected to be arrived at shortly.
Though a trade union leader claimed that FACT was offered natural gas at US$10 per mmBtu, sources said that a price was not agreed at on Monday. The latest consignment of LNG was being offered to FACT at a little over US$13 per mmBtu by GAIL India before Monday’s developments.
A delegation of members of Parliament from Kerala met Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Fertiliser Minister Anantha Kumar on Monday as a follow-up to the meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitely last week.
Chairman and Managing Director of FACT Jaiveer Srivastava told The Hindu from Delhi that things were moving in the right direction for FACT and discussions on Monday between the Union Ministers had turned out to be positive for the company.
Top officials from FACT, GAIL India and Petronet LNG, the company which runs the LNG terminal in Kochi, were present at the meeting of the MPs with the Union ministers. Mr. Srivastava said that the importance of a long-term contract for natural gas supply was emphasised during the meeting.
He said that Monday’s developments augured well for FACT, which is waiting to recommencethe caprolactam and ammonia plants.