GAIL eyes Dabhol LNG terminal expansion

India’s gas company GAIL is readying a 30 billion Indian rupees ($461 million) investment into the Dabhol liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

The investment will be funneled into expanding the handling capacity of the terminal to 10 million tons of LNG per year over the next three years.

Last week, the terminal received the first liquefied natural gas cargo from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass export plant in Louisiana under a 20-year sale and purchase agreement (SPA).

GAIL said that the facility is currently underutilized as it is not yet an all-weather facility, Press Trust of India reports.

Out of the total amount invested, 7 billion rupees will be directed into creating an all-weather facility by 2019, by completing the abandoned and half-done breakwater.

The facility is operated by GAIL’s unit, Konkan LNG, created after the Ratnagiri Gas & Power was demerged, and speaking to PTI, GAIL’s chairman and managing director BC Tripathi said the expansion will take some three years to complete.

Work on completing the breakwater is set to start soon, enabling the import facility to operate throughout the year, instead of only eight months currently.

The tender for the breakwater construction will be launched soon, the country’s minister for petroleum natural gas, Dharmendra Pradhan said.

Once breakwater and the capacity expansion is done, the terminal will be receiving between 80 and 90 cargoes per year, up from 22-24 currently.

LNG World News Staff