Petronet LNG plans to expand Dahej terminal.

Petronet LNG plans to undertake the next round of expansion at Dahej terminal in Gujarat for 2.5 million tonne per annum capacity in the next couple of months. That would take its total capacity to 17.5 million tonne including the 5 mtpa that is in progress.

AK Balyan, managing director and CEO of Petronet LNG, told Financial Chronicle that the company has completed the pre-project studies for the expansion to 17.5 million tonne and is firming up the consumer interest. 'Once the commitment from the consumers comes, we would take up the construction in two months time,' he added.

The joint venture company between Gail, ONGC, IOC and BPCL at present is going ahead with the expansion of 15 million tonne from the existing 10 million tonne and expects to complete it by November 2016.

The Dahej terminal processed 521 trillion British thermal units (TBTUs) in fiscal 2014-15 with a capacity utilisation of 102 per cent. The throughput during the year increased around 6 per cent over the previous year and we expect at least 50 per cent of the current expansion to be commissioned by June and the remaining by November 2016, said Balyan.

The company is simultaneously working on its Kochi terminal which completed its first full year of operations in March. However, the lack of evacuation facility in terms of pipelines to the customer regions of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu led to lower voulmes in the first full year of operations.

The volumes at the Kochi terminal dropped in the fourth quarter due to low offtake. Under the long-term agreements the pipelines that were supposed to connect Karnatka via Kerala and Tamil Nadu are stuck due to land acquisition issues. Farmers in Tamil Nadu are against their land being given for laying the pipelines and the matter is now in the Supreme Court with a fresh date for hearing to be intimated soon after it got postponed in April.

The terminal at Kochi could handle only 12 TBTU of LNG against 521 TBTU handled by Dahej terminal. They had to reload sales and primarily served two consumers in the vicinity of the terminal - BPCL refinery and FACT fertiliser plant. Sale of LNG through trucks was also initiated to Hindustan Life Care Limited.

Meanwhile, to reduce the impact of lower volumes at the Kochi terminal the company imported an LNG cargo and re-loaded for exports. It also performed gas-up and cool-down services for a warm LNG vessel and
provided bunker fuel to a vessel.

'The work on the pipeline in Kerala is now going to take place soon. Once all the approvals are in place it would not take more than 6-8 months for laying the pipeline,' said Balyan.

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