ADB, French co plans stake in Petronet

Inaugurating the business operation of Petronet LNG here on Saturday, Mathur said the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals at Kochi in Kerala and Dahej in Gujarat were expected to become operational by 2002. He said that for the thirdLNG terminal at Ennore, Petronet had tied up with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.

The Rs 1600-crore LNG terminal in Kochi would have an installed capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. The company had identified the local independent power producers as potential customers. The company had got a leg up even at the drawing board stage with the Siasin Energy Ltd promoters of the 1200-MW Vypin Energy Ltd signing an MoU for the supply of 200 million cubic meters of gas per day. He said Petronet was all set to sign another MoU with the 350 MW NTPC power plant coming up in Kayamkulam, near here, which has decided to enhance its capacity to 2000 MW.

Petronet has commissioned M/S Indian Market Research Bureau for identifying other potential consumers in the area.

He said the Dahej terminal with a capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum with plans for further expansion would also be commissioned around the same time. Two more terminals, one at Mangalore in Karnataka and the other at Ennore in Tamil Nadu,would be set up subsequently.

He said the company was in an advanced stage of tying up LNG suppliers to the ventures and a final agreement would be reached by the year end. Only after this can the company fix the price of the gas to be supplied from the terminal.

For obtaining all clearance from the ministries concerned, the Rapid Environment Impact Assessment and the Comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment for the marine port were being prepared by the National Institute of Oceanography and the land related part was being done by the Tata Risk Management Services.