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Journalism of Courage
Royal Dutch/Shell said on Tuesday that it plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore for setting up a bulk cargo as well as a container terminal at Hazira Port. Shell has already built an LNG receiving terminal at Hazira.
According to Shell India Director Marc Den Hartog, “We are in discussions with Essar Steel for setting up a bulk cargo terminal at Hazira. The cargo terminal would be for Essar Steel’s captive use.”
For the container terminal, Shell is talking to several multinational firms, including Maersk, P&O Ports of Australia, Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) as well as Dubai Port International. “The ultimate investment (in the two terminals) will be of the order of Rs 3,000 crore,” he said, but did not give any timeframe for implementation of the two projects.
Shell has formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Hazira Port Pvt Ltd, for building the port terminals.
While Essar is expected to take a 50 per cent stake in the $100 million bulk cargo terminal, Shell may offer up to 49 per cent equity stake in the container terminal to the MNCs it is talking to in this regard.
Hartog said Shell began commercial supplies of natural gas from its LNG terminal at Hazira from Saturday, its first customer being Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC).
Shell has contracted to sell 0.7 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from its Hazira LNG import terminal to GSPC for 210 days at a price of $3.70 per million British thermal unit (MBTU).
