State-run National Thermal Power Corporation has rejected bids of British oil and gas major BG Group and public sector oil companies' consortium Petronet LNG Ltd for supply of 3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas to fire its two power plants.

While Petronas of Malaysia, Royal/Dutch Shell and Yemen LNG qualified for the supply of 3 million tonnes LNG a year for 17 years, Reliance Industries too cleared the technical hurdle for supply of 4.14 billion cubic meters natural gas for NTPC's Kawas and Gandhar power projects in Gujarat from its gigantic gas field in Bay of Bengal.

However, big names like Oman LNG, RasGas of Qatar, TotalFina of France, Unocal of US and BP of UK, who had expressed interest in supply of LNG/natural gas to NTPC, did not put in technical and price bid on the close of tender on Tuesday, industry sources said.

For regassificatiton of imported LNG, PLL's Dahej terminal and Shell's Hazira terminal (both in Gujarat) were shortlisted.

BG Group, which had bid for supply of LNG from its Iran gas field and regassification at its proposed Pipavav terminal, had not furnished the $4 million bid security, which was the main reason for its disqualification, sources said.

NTPC sought two separate bids for supply of 3 million tonnes imported LNG or 4.14 billion cubic meters natural gas from domestic fields to fire Gandhar and Kawas power projects, which are being expanded from 650 MW to 2,000 MW each.

Petronet LNG had proposed to supply 3 million tonnes LNG sourced from Qatar, but the bid was rejected on "technical grounds," sources said.

Unocal decided to sit out, as it felt supplying LNG from its east coast import terminal would be impossible. Besides, the Bangladesh government too has not allowed it to export gas from its field to India.

Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co Ltd (RasGas) -- a joint venture firm promoted by ExxonMobil of US, had in July quit the race saying the tender conditions were heavily loaded against the supplier.