CHENNAI, FEB 18: Mobil Peeves Company Ltd (MPCL) on Thursday said it had not scrapped the Beypore liquified natural gas (LNG) project in Kerala and asked the State Government to take a "pro-active step" to resolve the issues that led to deferring the project.MPCL, a joint venture between US oil giant Mobil Oil Corporation and Dubai-based non-resident Indian (NRI) P V Abdul Wahab, had announced on Monday that it was delaying the project due to "continuing difficulties with local residents and changed economic environment."MPCl managing director John P Parry told reporters here that work on the project would resume after all outstanding issues were settled with the Government and local people.Parry took pains to clarify that the project was not deferred due to non-viability but asked the State Government to chip in with assistance to attract more vessels to the Beypore port, being developed along with the LPG terminal. "The government has committed in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to ensureviability of the port. We are not going to use more than 20 per cent of the port capacity," Parry said.He said it was up to the Government to encourage more people to use the port to rake in more revenue by way of toll-fee collection. "We would be very happy if someone comes and shoulders the responsibility of port development," he said, adding that talks were on with two multinational companies in this regard. Parry said the Beypore project was not very important for Mobil "at this stage"."We can wait for many years and we are reviewing the situation. As and when we see things are looking up we will resume work," he said.MPCL chairman Wahab, who holds 45 per cent of the total equity in the project, said the Government should change its stand on dumping the material dredged out for building the port.While MPCL wanted to dump the drudged material into the sea, the State Government was insisting on dumping it on a separate site off the project area so that the land could be reclaimed."Thegovernment should allow us to dump the drudged material into the sea because it is not economical for us to buy land only to dump waste materials. This would cost us at least $ 2 million," Wahab said.Referring to issues relating to environment and local people, Wahab said the project had obtained all clearances with regard to environment from authorities concerned.He said about 100 people, who were evacuated for setting up the project, had been given land and housing and charged a "group of people" in the area with misleading local residents.
