Petronet LNG of India has asked Indian Oil Corp (IOC) to drop plans to duplicate infrastructure on India’s east coast and has offered to meet all of IOC’s gas needs, local media reported.
Petronet LNG is close to starting an LNG terminal at Kochi and another one on the Andhra Pradesh coast in 2016, while IOC plans to build LNG terminals at Ennore in Tamil Nadu and Dhamara port in Odisha.
Petronet’s CEO A K Balyan recently wrote to IOC Chairman R S Butola, saying use of the Kochi and Gangavaram facilities would be better utilisation of capital than building new terminals.
“.. .(the) Kochi-Bangalore pipeline which passes through state of Tamil Nadu can very well be extended to cater to other regions in the state like Chennai and market gas at substantially lower cost and time than a greenfield terminal at Ennore . It would also ensure better utilization of capital and other resources ,” Balyan said.
“Petronet also offers to assure appropriate capacity at Kochi to feed the gas requirement to the customers planned from Ennore terminal. We therefore propose that IOC may relook into its plans for Ennore terminal, ” he added.
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LNG World News Staff, August 5, 2013; Image: Petronet