Indian Oil Corporation plans to raise capacity at Petronet’s LNG terminal

Public sector oil marketer, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) plans additional 1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of capacity for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) at Petronet LNG's Dahej terminal, which is being expanded from existing 15 MTPA capacity to 17.5 MTPA, a top company official informed here.

This comes in addition to the one million tonnes per annum of capacity IOC booked in the proposed Floating Storage and Re-gasification Unit (FSRU) terminal of Swan Energy at Jafrabad on Saurashtra coast in Gujarat.

IOC's emphasize on gas marketing is evident from the company's LNG plans as it is also in talks with Gujarat government's Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) for picking up stake in its upcoming Mundra LNG terminal.

B Ashok, Chairman, IOC stated that the discussions with Gujarat government and GSPC for Mundra LNG Terminal is continuing and no final decision has been made on the same. "We have more projects being planned on Gujarat coast. Mundra LNG Terminal is one of them. The talks are going on with GSPC and we are evaluating the deal. No decision has been taken so far but the talks are progressing positively," he said adding that share of natural gas in the overall energy basket in India is currently only about 6.5 per cent, which the government wants to increase to 15 per cent as against the global average of 22-23 per cent.

"Gujarat is already at 25 per cent with the highest natural gas coverage in the country. But it is also a gateway to rest of the country. So, we require more capacities on this cost. We are taking additional one million tonne capacity in Petronet's LNG Terminal at Dahej, which is expanding to 17.5 MTPA. So from our existing booked capacity of 5.5 MTPA there will be an addition of 1 million tonne on the expansion, which is being talked about," said Ashok, on the sidelines of a launch of company's first Xtra Power Sarai in Gujarat at Moraiya near Ahmedabad.

The Sarai is to provide resting and lodging facilities to the truckers on the highway. "This is the first such Sarai in Gujarat and 43rd in the country. We plan to have 100 such Sarai by the year end out of which 8 will come up in Gujarat," Ashok said. All the Sarai are currently Company-owned, Company-operated large Sarai costing around Rs 2-2.5 crore for the development and construction on the land. The figure may go up to 200 by the end of next year.

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