Fertilizer sector remained at top of sectors that receive natural gas from Reliance Industries' KG-D6 fields as the group of ministers tasked with distributing gas decided on Wednesday against diverting the supplies away from fertilizer plans.

The petroleum Ministry had requested the panel, vested with the Cabinet's powers, to rearrange priorities and give more gas to the power sector, which has been suffering due to shortages of the fuel. As per an estimate, power projects worth more than $21 billion have been stalled due to lack of gas.

But the panel, under defence minister A K Antony, decided to continue keeping the fertilizer sector at the top spot due to fears that any reduction in gas supplies to the sector would reduce fertilizer supplies during the peak cropping season this summer.

After attending the panel's meeting, Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily said, "Today's decision is that the requirement of fertilizer for the agriculture sector will be fully protected. At the same time, power should also get gas."

At present, the government prioritizes gas supplies from the RIL oil & gas fields to fertilizer producers, followed by LPG extractors and power generators. Meanwhile gas production from RIL's KG-D6 fields has slipped to 14 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) against projected 80 mcmd.

The panel asked the petroleum ministry to return on next Monday with options of getting some more gas for the power sector from some other sources.