GAIL India, the country's largest transporter and marketer of natural gas, today signed contracts with the operators of the field to market the entire volume of gas from the Panna-Mukta and Tapti (PMT) fields. The state-owned gas utility signed the purchase contract with Reliance Industries (RIL), British Gas India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) - the operators of the fields. It has also entered into pacts with gas consumers, including RIL and BG, for selling gas at the government-approved price of $5.7 per million British thermal unit (mBtu). Marketing the entire 17 million cubic meters per day (mcmd) of gas from the PMT fields will increase GAIL's marketing margin by Rs 100 crore annually, while transportation revenues will go up by Rs 450 crore annually. "We signed the contracts to purchase and sell the entire volume of PMT gas,' said BC Tripathi, director (marketing), GAIL India. RIL and BG had earlier refused to sign the contract unless they were given a share of the gas from the field to feed their requirements. RIL will get 3.6 mcmd of gas, while BG will receive 2.13 mcmd which will be routed through the company's subsidiary, Gujarat Gas, for supply in Gujarat. Around 5 mcmd will be supplied to power and fertiliser plants, while GAIL will use around 2.8 mcmd of gas to extract LPG. GAIL had earlier bagged the rights to market 4.8 mcmd of PMT gas, while the joint venture partners were allowed to directly market 5.6 mcmd till March 2006. On instructions from the Prime Minister's Office for a more uniform distribution of the natural resource, in December 2007, the oil ministry scrapped all contracts for sale of gas produced from the PMT fields and nominated GAIL for selling it to