Dahej Uran gas pipeline may be delayed

GAIL India's ambitious pipeline project "" Dahej Uran Pipeline project (DUPL) "" has been delayed beyond its set deadline of March 31, 2007. Over Rs 1,800 crore has been lined up for the project. With this, the gas supply to Ratnagiri Gas and Power has been delayed further.

"A 15 kilometre stretch of pipeline near Surat has become a major bone of contention," said a company source. GAIL has failed to construct pipeline in this stretch as it could not settle the dispute with the land owners, said sources.

The project has already been delayed by at least four months. It was supposed to start by the January-end.

The pipeline may flow regassified LNG that Petronet LNG or Shell would bring in to their terminals on the west coast in Gujarat. GAIL had commissioned the pipeline connecting the import terminal of Shell much before it could commission the pipeline to take gas further to Ratnagiri Gas and Power. Approximately 13 km long pipeline connecting the Hazira terminal of Shell with national gas grid of GAIL has been commissioned, but no further connection is available to supply gas to Ratnagiri Power.

Petronet LNG and Ratnagiri gas and power project have tied up for spot LNG. The delay in commissioning of the Dahej Uran pipeline may also compel the Maharashtra government to start one more unit of Ratnagiri power on naphtha. Already, it has been running one unit of the three units each with 740 MW capacity on naphtha since May last year. Cancellation of tenders and dispute between ministry and GAIL over longitudinally submerged arc welded technology and rival helically submerged arc welded has delayed the entire project.