HC orders Dabhol asset transfer to Ratnagiri Gas

On Saturday, the Bombay High Court passed an order paving the way for the transfer of assets of the erstwhile Dabhol Power Company to Ratnagiri Gas and Power (RGPPL), the joint venture company promoted by GAIL and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

With this transfer, the asset base of GAIL including the pro-rata share of all the joint ventures, subsidiaries and associates where GAIL has equity participation has increased by around 20 per cent from Rs 14,700 crore to Rs 17,500 crore.

As a promoter of RGPPL, GAIL's primary role is to source liquefied natural gas (LNG) required to run the power plant. GAIL is engaged in discussions with prospective suppliers in various countries.

GAIL is also facilitating completion of the balance erection works of the LNG terminal and will, thereafter, begin operations.

The capacity of the LNG terminal is 5 mmtpa, of which only 2.1 mmtpa is required by the power plant. GAIL will use the balance regassification capacity of 2.9 mmtpa available at the terminal to directly import LNG and regassify the same before undertaking its sales in Maharashtra, which is currently supply-constrained.

The total estimated gas demand in Maharashtra is of the order of 35 mmscmd, out of which, the current availability is of the order of 9 mmscmd. A similar shortage of power also exists in Maharashtra and in view of such demand-supply gaps in the availability of power and natural gas, capacity of the LNG terminal as well as that of the power plant of RGPPL is expected to be expanded in the short term.