Gail plans pipeline for Reliance gas

State-owned gas major Gail (India) Ltd is exploring the possibility of tying up with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for laying a Rs 6,725 crore pipeline from Kakinada to Uran.

The utility plans to wheel natural gas from RIL's giant gas fields in Bay of Bengal to consumption centres in west and north.

Gail has offered to lay the 1,100-km pipeline for RIL for a transportation tariff of 39 cents per million British thermal units (BTU).

Addressing a press conference, Gail Chairman and Managing Director Proshanto Banerjee said, "Discussions are under way with RIL and the other companies engaged in the exploration of gas in the Krishna-Godavari basin, including Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation and Cairn Energy, for laying the pipeline."

Banerjee said the pipeline would have the capacity to transmit 40 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas. Earlier, it had proposed a Rs 4,727 crore pipeline with a capacity with 20 mmscmd.

The proposed pipeline will transverse from Kakinada to Panvel via Hyderabad and Pune. From Panvel, the pipeline can be connected to Uran. RIL gas can be pumped for consumption by its power plants or other industries in Mahrashtra and can also further be transported to its proposed mega power plant at Dadri, near here.

He said the 12 mmscmd Dahej-Uran pipeline would be completed by May 2005, and Gail was in talks with Royal Dutch/Shell for capacity booking. Shell wants 5 mmscmd of the capacity to transport the regassified-LNG from its Hazira import terminal in Gujarat to centres in Maharashtra.

Gail has also approved the laying of Rs 347 crore Dadri-Panipat and the Rs 220 crore Thulendi-Phulpur pipelines and is also planning a Dabhol-Uran connection, Banerjee said.

"We have drawn a massive investment plan of Rs 20,000 crore, which will comprise the laying of 12 pipeline segments over the next 5-6 years under the national gas grid project," he said.