The Hindu Business Line : Commissioning of LNG terminal at Ratnagiri delayed

Mr Patel also told the Lok Sabha that IOC has indicated its willingness for participation of Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) in its grassroots integrated refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex at Paradip.

New Delhi , Aug 10

The Government today said that the commissioning of the LNG receiving terminal at Ratnagiri has been delayed and that long-term LNG supplies for this terminal are in the process of being tied up by GAIL (India) Ltd.

This information was given to Lok Sabha by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Dinsha Patel.

Mr Patel was replying to a question on whether supply to Ratnagiri Gas and Power Ltd (RGPL) would be delayed, as Qatar's Ras Laffan Gas Co is willing to provide LNG either at Dahej or Hazira.

The Minister of State also said that GAIL is laying the Dahej-Uran pipeline (DUPL) and Dabhol-Panvel pipeline (DPPL) with a view to supplying natural gas to Ratnagiri power project from the Dahej LNG terminal.

The DUPL and DPPL projects are expected to be commissioned on March 31, 2007 at an estimated cost of Rs 1,830 crore and Rs 1,326 crore respectively.

Petronet LNG Ltd, which owns the Dahej LNG Terminal, is in the process of tying up short-term LNG supplies for the project from Qatar.

It is envisaged that once the Ratnagiri LNG terminal is commissioned - with all associated facilities and supplies for the terminal tied up - gas supplies to the power project could be received directly through Dahej terminal, the Minister said.

DUPL would be used for supplying gas from the Dahej terminal to Uran and DPPL for supplying merchant sales gas quantities from the Dabhol terminal to Panvel, he said, adding that linkage of LNG terminals provides a lot of flexibility in terms of gas supply management.

IOC Kuwait

Mr Patel also told the Lok Sabha that IOC has indicated its willingness for participation of Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) in its grassroots integrated refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex at Paradip as well as in the naphtha cracker and downstream polymer complex at Panipat.

However, no formal proposal has been provided by IOC to KPC in this regard, he added.

In the event of KPC's participation in the project, the likely advantages to IOC would be that the Kuwaiti company's equity participation would minimise its risks involved in the project, in proportion to the respective participation interest of the two companies.

Besides, KPC's international experience in handling such mega projects could be beneficial to IOC and could facilitate the Indian company's participation in the Kuwaiti firm's overseas projects.

IOC inked an MoU with KPC in March this year for co-operation in trade of hydrocarbons, upstream oil and gas projects, downstream oil projects, R&D and training in India, Kuwait and any third country, the Minister said.