Petronet LNG Limited is planning to charter a floating LNG (liquefied natural gas) storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to bring LNG to the AP coast early by 2014 while it expects to complete the land-based LNG terminal at Gangavaram port by 2016.
The company made this revelation after it concluded the public hearing for developing the land-based terminal on Thursday.
“Petronet LNG Limited is fully committed to this project and is working on various options for bringing gas early, to meet the energy deficit, both in the state and in other parts of the country,” the company said while stating that chartering an FSRU was being considered to bring LNG much ahead of the completion of land-based terminal. Barring some protests from a few local fishermen and political activists, the public hearing went off peacefully. The place of public hearing was heavily barricaded besides being guarded by about 100 police as a precautionary measure. About 40 people had initially raised slogans against Gangavaram port for not providing jobs for local people as promised and were taken away by the police. Some, though, expressed fears about the project as a possible cause of pollution in the area. However, the company officials allayed these fears.
“The concern expressed by some of the local people about the pollution created by the proposed terminal was duly clarified during the presentation made by the representative of the company. The LNG terminal in itself is a zero-emission project and causes no pollution. As clarified earlier, locating the LNG terminal at Gangavaram will only help substantially reduce the pollution levels in and around Visakhapatnam,” the company said. In a statement, the company indicated the proposed capacity of the Gangavaram LNG terminal as 10 million tonnes (mmtpa) as compared with the earlier announced 5-million tonne while keeping the investment figure of Rs 4,500 crore unchanged.
This is going to be the third such project by Petronet LNG with the other two being an operational 10 mmtpa terminal at Dahej in Gujarat and a 5 mmtpa terminal at Kochi. The AP project will comprise facilities for receiving, storage and regasification of LNG, according to the company.
To reclaim land
According to the company, the proposed project requires around 120 acres of land, of which 40 acres belongs to Gangavaram port while the remaining needs to be reclaimed. Petronet and Gangavaram Port Limited (GPL) have already applied for the approval of the state government for developing the project as well as reclamation of land, the release said. The entire extent of land, including the land proposed to be reclaimed, is located within the port limits or boundaries of Gangavaram Port.
Petronet and GPL had signed an agreement for development of LNG terminal at the port premises in May last year. Petronet is a joint venture company promoted by the four public sector oil and natural gas players — BPCL, GAIL, IOCL and ONGC — and had commenced operations in 2004 with a mandate to import LNG and set up LNG terminals in the country.
