Japanese co bags Dahej EPC contract

The Rs 2,500-crore terminal is being put up by PLL, a joint venture of Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Gas Authority of India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation with 12.5 per cent stake each. The joint venture was set up for import of 7.5 million tonnes of LNG – five million tonnes at Dahej and 2.5 million tonnes at Kochi.

According to Naik, of the remaining 50 per cent equity in the project, Rasgas of Qatar, with which PLL has entered into a 25-year contract for import of 7.5 million tonnes LNG, will pick 10 per cent while project consultant Gaz de France would take a similar amount.

While a nominee of the Gujarat government would hold 5 per cent stake, the remaining 25 per cent equity would be offloaded to banks and financial institutions. Naik said the Rs 1,600-crore Kochi terminal would be ready by July 2004. Stating that four companies were in the race for the shipping contract for transporting 7.5 million tonnes from Qatar on a time-charter basis, he said the shipping contracts would be awarded by March 31, 2001.

Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd of UK has been appointed as project management consultant (PMC) which would be responsible for regular review and monitoring of the project.

"Supplies at Dahej shall commence from December 2003 while at Kochi they would begin during the later half of 2004," he said. On National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) participation in the project, Naik said NTPC has an option of joining the project at a later stage and added that the finalisation of EPC contract for Dahej terminal has cleared all doubts regarding materialisation of the project.

With the commissioning of Dahej terminal, the availability of natural gas for consumers in Gujarat and along the HBJ pipeline system would increase significantly by 20 million cubic meters per day and enable supplies to new projects in power, fertiliser and other sectors, he said. GAIL has signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Maharashtra and Karnataka for conducting gas demand assessment. A similar MoU was in the offing for West Bengal while discussions were on with Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Naphtha at import price for DPC
In a move which is expected to bring down power cost of Dabhol power plant, the Centre on Monday offered to sell naphtha to power plants in Maharashtra at import price. "We have offered to the Maharashtra government naphtha at import price for power projects so as to check the rising cost of power in the state," said petroleum minister Ram Naik.

Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) was purchasing expensive power from Enron’s Dabhol Power Plant, which uses naphtha as feedstock. This has led to demands for scrapping the 1,444 mw second phase of Dabhol project.

As per the PPA, MSEB has to pay through a system of guaranteed electricity tariffs that will begin at eight cents a kw hour and rise to 33 cents a kw hour by the project’s slated termination date in 2017. Cost of power from naphtha based phase-I has shot up to over Rs 7 a unit this month due to rising international fuel cost and appreciation of dollar against the rupee.