At least four firms including Gas Authority of India Ltd, Petronas of Malaysia and British Gas have bid for supplying natural gas/LNG to Reliance Energy's mega 3740 MW gas-fired power plant at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.

Reliance Industries Ltd has also bid for supply of natural gas from its giant Dhirubhai fields in the Bay of Bengal.

However, Petronet LNG Ltd, the country's first LNG firm, and Royal Dutch/Shell have ignored the tender, sources said.

GAIL has offered to supply liquefied natural gas sourced from Iran to the project while Petronas proposes to supply LNG from South-East Asia. British Gas can supply gas from its Panna/Mukta and Tapti fields in the Mumbai offshore.

Sources said the $2.97 per million BTU (British Thermal Unit) price offered by Reliance Industries Ltd for gas from Dhirubhai fields to National Thermal Power Corp's power plants in Gujarat will be the benchmark for Dadri tender.

Reliance has offered NTPC gas from Krishna Godavari basin at $2.70 per million BTU plus $0.48 per million BTU for piping the gas from Kakinada on the Andhra coast to

Kawas and Gandhar in Gujarat, a distance of 1400-km. A four per cent central sales tax ($0.9 per million BTU) takes the Dhirubhai gas price to $3.27 per million BTU on net heating value basis. On gas heating value basis, it costs $2.97 per million BTU.