The Hindu Business Line : GAIL eyes operating stake in small onshore blocks

Kolkata, Jan. 18 GAIL (India) Ltd may bid for operating stake in small onshore and shallow water blocks in NELP-VII. For the rest of the blocks on offer, especially those in deepwater, GAIL will bid for participatory stake in the consortium.

“We may bid for operating stake for the small blocks especially on-shore,” Mr U.D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, told newspersons here. GAIL has stakes in 29 oil and gas blocks in the country, out of which “six has proven reserves”.

On the company’s petrochemical facility at Pata in Uttar Pradesh, he said that GAIL had recently completed capacity expansion of the facility from 3,10,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 4,40,000 tpa through de-bottlenecking.

“We are now planning further expansion of the capacity to 5,00,000 tpa through some modifications at an estimated investment of Rs 100 crore,” Mr Choubey said.

Pata petrochemicals currently processes 12-13 million metric standard cubic metre of gas a day (mmscmd). Following the forthcoming capacity augmentation, the plant will consume approximately 15 mmscmd.

On meeting the additional requirement of Pata Petrochemicals, Mr Choubey said that the company had LNG sourcing options from Shell (Hazira) and Petronet LNG. According to the available projection, GAIL would source 1-2 mmscmd from Shell Hazira.

On distribution of additional supplies available from Panna-Mukta-Tapti joint venture, he said that the gas would be marketed as per the guidelines set by the Union Government.

Mr Choubey denied that GAIL’s control over marketing right of PMT gas led to short-supply of natural gas to industries based in Gujarat including those in power and fertiliser sector (like NTPC-Gandhar, Kribhco, IIFCO and others). “We are not aware of any such short-supply in Gujarat,” he added.

Commenting on the possibility of bonus issue, he said, “I cannot deny the fact that it is on our agenda. We are now taking initiative to increase the authorised share capital.”

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