Petronet LNG scales up to full capacity

Petronet LNG, India's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, has scaled up operations to full capacity from this month.

With the second LNG carrier Raahi joining its earlier ship Disha, Petronet will now import 5 million tonne of LNG from Qatar at Dahej in Gujarat in the current fiscal, Suresh Mathur, MD and CEO, said today.

"The second, new vessel Raahi, which was delivered recently, made its maiden journey from Ras Laffan port in Qatar to Petronet's Dahej terminal this month enabling release of about 17.6 million standard cubic meter per day of gas into the HBJ pipeline," he said in a release issued today.

The increased supplies from the terminal will constiute over 30% of the existing supply of gas in the country.

Mathur said that since commissioning of the terminal in February 2004, the company has supplied three million tonne of LNG till March 2005.

"LNG has substituted costly naphtha as feedstock in power and fertiliser units enabling a national saving of $750 million. On annualised basis, at full capacity of 5 million tonne per annum, savings would amount to $1.4 billion at current prices," Mathur said.