India's biggest power producer, NTPC has said that it is planning to spend as much as $15 billion during the next ten years to acquire coal supplies from overseas locations as the price of the fossil fuel fell to its lowest level since more than a year and half.

The company might enter into 10-year contracts to import as much as 150 million metric tons of coal, according to Chairman Arup Roy Choudhury. This amounts to 15 billion, assuming a rate of $100 a ton of coal from international markets.

An issue with the supply agreement and capacity of Coal India has forced the power producers to look for alternative supplies. The union coal ministry has urged Coal India Ltd (CIL) to consider a request by NTPC for singing the fuel supply agreement with revised minimum fuel supply level for all of the new units of its existing plants.

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told the Lok Sabha that the CIL has been asked to consider NTPC's request for the agreement with changed terms. NTPC, which is among the many power generators, is one of the companies that have not agreed to the new terms for signing the agreement and said on Monday that it would only accept revised minimum fuel supply level and not other changes included in the new terms.

Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has approached the PMO for intervention over the opposition of some power units to the clause included in the fuel supply agreements (FSAs). The differences are over penalty that is to be paid by the coal major if it fails to supply 80 per cent of the contracted fuel to them. NTPC is among the companies that have refused to sign FSAs.