Petronet LNG Ltd appears to have zeroed in on Dhamra port in Orissa for setting up its third LNG terminal, incidentally the first on east coast. Plans are also afoot to kick-start coastal trade of LNG through daughter vessels beginning 2012-end, once the Kochi terminal is operational to large users in Sri Lanka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and others.
Sources close to the development told Business Line that PLL had already completed a pre-feasibility on Dhamra and was set to launch the feasibility study — expected to be taken up by global major Mercator — in a couple of weeks. The feasibility study will be ready for seeking board approval in 2011-end.
PLL had earlier referred a number of ports on the east coast including Machhlipatnam and Gangavaram as possible locations for the terminal.
According to the Petronet Chairman, Mr A. K. Balyan, the proposed east coast port would contribute to the company's plan to create a distributional channel independent of pipelines. To start with, PLL is planning to use nearly half of the projected 5 mt Kochi terminal capacity for coastal trade through smaller cryogenic vessels, with smaller re-gasification facilities to be put up at the customer end.
“We are looking forward to sell over 2 mt LNG through this route to 2-3 large consumers,” Mr Balyan said adding that the company had an offer to supply LNG to an upcoming (LNG-based) thermal power generation facility in the island nation.
Discussions are also on to offer clean fuel solutions for city gas and industrial applications in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Opportunities are explored to cater industrial users along the east cost, including ones at Haldia in West Bengal.
Yamal Opportunities
Meanwhile, a consortium of Petronet, ONGC Videsh and GAIL is expecting an early decision on its offer to acquire interest in the upcoming Yamal LNG in Russia in the next two months. The acquisition — if comes through — would ensure much needed backward integration for PLL.
Operated by Russia's Novatek, Yamal would aggregate production from 11 gas fields and 15 oil and condensate fields in the Yamal Peninsula. PLL is also exploring the opportunities to tie up supplies in a liquefaction facility expected to come up at the Anadarko Petroleum-operated field in Mozambique. BPCL and Videocon hold 10 per cent equity interest each in the gas field.