NEW DELHI, MARCH 19: The joint venture agreement between the various partners in Petronet LNG involving four national oil companies and National Thermal Power Corporation would be signed soon.Petronet LNG chairman and managing director Suresh Mathur recently told a meeting of power producers that the company has decided to allocate the balance equity to RasGas Mobil of Qatar, Gaz de France and a host of multilateral agencies. The break-up of shareholding between the foreign partners is not known. Both RasGas Mobil and Gaz De France were reportedly keen to pick up 26 per cent stake each.Petronet LNG is also considering an option to pick up 5 per cent stake in an upstream project of RasGas Mobil. RasGas Mobil, a consortium of Qatar Genreal Petroleum Corporation and Mobil, had been selected as the preferred liquefied natural gas supplier to the project for a period of 20 years.Mathur further stated that the company was looking at setting up terminals at Karnataka and Goa, in addition to the ones planned at Dahej, Gujarat and Kochi, Kerala. Petronet has also received requests from Orissa government to set up a terminal at Gopalpur, besides a proposal for a terminal at Mangalore, Karnataka.Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Gas Authority of India Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Authority of India and NTPC are each taking 10 per cent stake in Petronet LNG's authorised capital of Rs 1,200 crore.Mathur added that the company would issue full information to lenders and multilateral agencies of the shareholding of the company by April end.Senior IOC sources said that the financial closure for the project is due to be achieved by June this year. Agreements for shipping contract would be on free-on-board basis.The capacity of Dahej terminal would be expanded to 7.5 million tonne of LNG in the second phase of the operation and thereafter to 10 million tonnes, from the initial proposed capacity of 5 million tonnes. The gas is scheduled to start flowing from Qatar from July 2003 to the Dahej terminal.The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for this terminal would be awarded by May 2000.Bids for the Kochi terminal which will have initial capacity of 2.5 million tonnes is yet to be invited. The Kochi terminal will have linkages with NTPC's Kayamkulam power project. It will also supply gas to independent power producers in that area.Mathur added that a terminal may not be feasible at Mangalore in the near future unless Karnataka had a requirement of over 2-3 million tonnes of gas. The company may, instead, lay a pipeline from Kochi to Mangalore for supply of LNG in that region.
