South India will start getting natural gas produced from the Krishna-Godavari basin (K-G basin) from 2012, according to petroleum secretary S Sundareshan
Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, Sundareshan said, “Ten days ago we had a meeting with Reliance Industries Ltd and GAIL (India) Ltd to discuss the time frame for the project. All the pipelines to the south will be ready by mid 2012.”
State-run GAIL would be laying one pipeline between Bangalore and Chennai while RIL would be laying pipelines between Kakinada and Chennai, and another between Chennai and Bangalore.
The gas would start flowing to Tamil Nadu anytime between March 2012 and December 2012, he said.
GAIL will also be executing the Dhabol-Bangalore pipeline with connectivity to Goa, Kochi-Mangalore pipeline with connectivity to Bangalore, and the Haldia-Jagdishpur pipeline. Reliance will be executing the Kakinada-Haldia pipeline.
He said the K-G basin currently produced 60 mmscmd (million metric standard cubic metre per day)of gas, which would be increased to 80 mmscmd. “As there are other gas finds too in that basin, the production of natural gas would go up in the next 3-4 years,” said Sundareshan.
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Gas production has increased 60-70 per cent in the last one year. “Last year was important for GAIL, which is involved in exploration and production of natural gas, as it commenced production in two important oil fields,” Sundareshan said.
The ministry is also looking at increasing the coverage of LPG connections in the country. The LPG coverage in Tamil Nadu is 73 per cent, and is expected to increase 10 per cent every year, he said.