Petronet LNG has suffered a loss of Rs 400 crore in the last fiscal due to difficulties in getting land for laying pipelines for connecting the Rs 4,000-crore Kochi LNG terminal with demand centres in Karnataka, a top official said here today.

“About Rs 400 crore is annual loss to Petronet,” company MD and CEO A K Balyan told reporters here. He was responding to a question about the loss the company suffered due to non-starter Kochi LNG terminal.

“Commercially, we will have to see how long we can sustain this. That is a question that we will have to workout and see. That’s why we have started doing some other activities there to sustain that,” he said.

“We are here for long-term and to see that benefits are given to this part of the country. Closing this would be a very drastic thing. I think it would be a very sorry state of affairs for the people,” he said at the Meet the Press programme organised by the Ernakulam Press Club here.

Asked if the company would withdraw in view of delay in getting land acquired for the project, Balyan said the project was planned as there was a need in Kerala.

To questions on whether Kerala government should be held responsible for the delay and choice of the state was a wrong for executing the project, he said: “I won’t say Kerala government... I think from the national perspective, the approach has been to bring gas to all parts of the country. Therefore, Kochi was seen as a southern part of the country not having pipeline network.”

Asked about the status of Petronet LNG’s new project in Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh, Balyan said it has got all approvals and “we have to do two things...what we are doing right now...One is that we have to ensure that pipelines are there and we don’t run into a Kochi problem. Secondly, the consumers are there and they firm up guarantee offtake of the gas.”

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