In a letter to Power Secretary Anil Razdan, NTPC Chairman T. Sankaralingam said the Oil Ministry allocated about 60 percent of gas from PMT gas fields to private companies while the Power Ministry was in talks with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry for additional gas for the state-owned generation utility.

''As could be seen, out of total production of 17.3 million cubic meters per day of gas from PMT fields, agreements for supplies of 14.13 mcmd have been reached and no additional PMT supplies have been allocated to NTPC," Sankaralingam said in the letter.

He wrote similar letters to Razdan in December 2007 and March 2008, after which both Razdan and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde wrote to Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora asking for additional gas for NTPC.

Sankaralingam said NTPC has been facing shortage of gas for some time, which has forced it to idle nearly 700 MW of power generation capacity.