PLL to hire 3 more LNG ships

Petronet LNG (PLL), India's first liquefied natural gas importing firm, will hire three more ships for transporting LNG from Qatar/Iran to its expanded Dahej terminal in Gujarat and a new project at Kochi in
Kerala.

PLL, which already has one 138,000-cubic metre capacity ship ferrying LNG from Qatar to its Dahej terminal and a second similar tanker scheduled to start operating from April, needs two more LNG tankers of similar capacity for hauling additional five million tonnes gas to Dahej, Suresh Mathur, CEO and managing director, said today.

For the 2.5 million tonnes-per-annum kochi terminal, PLL wants a 152,000-to-165,000-cubic metres capacity ship.

"PLL has floated global tenders for time chartering three more LNG tankers as well as for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the expansion of Dahej terminal to 10 million tonnes and a greefield re-gasification terminal at Kochi," he said.

The company is expanding the capacity of Dahej LNG terminal from 5 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes per annum at an estimated cost of Rs 1000 crore and is setting up a Rs 2000 crore LNG receiving terminal at Cochin with an initial capacity of 2.5 million tonnes, which can be scaled up to 5 million tonnes per annum later.

Mathur said petronet will operate its Dahej terminal in Gujarat at full capacity from next march, doubling LNG imports to 5 million tonnes a year.