Gail (India) and NTPC plan to lease out part of their new liquefied natural gas import terminal in India to companies including BG Group as reduced demand leads to lower utilisation.
The companies’ LNG facility in western India, held under Ratnagiri Gas & Power, will be ready to import cargoes by the end of March, AK Ahuja, Ratnagiri Gas managing director, said in a phone interview from New Delhi yesterday. The terminal hasn’t won any major contracts, he said.
The opening of the Ratnagiri plant, delayed by almost a year, will increase the number of LNG terminals in India to three and boost capacity when energy demand growth is stalling amid the global economic recession. India’s economy will expand at the slowest pace in six years, the government said this week.
“We are planning to shortly float expression of interests in the market for customers who are willing to bring in LNG at our terminal and pay us tolling charges,” Ahuja said. “Players such as BG” may be keen, he said. BG had tried to develop an import terminal in India in the past. Petronet LNG owns the Dahej terminal while Royal Dutch Shell and Total SA own the Hazira terminal, with both located on the northwest coast of India.
When Ratnagiri starts operation, the three facilities will have a combined capacity equivalent to about 70 per cent of current gas consumption in the nation. Ratnagiri, which spent Rs 500 crore ($102 million) to build the LNG facility, may deploy the unit as a “merchant terminal” where users can bring in LNG and sell in the domestic market, Ahuja said.
GAS PIPELINE
Gail started a 50-kilometer (31 miles) gas pipeline between Ambewadi and Usar, an offshoot of a transmission line supplying gas and re-gassified LNG to the Dabhol project, the company said.