State-run Indian Oil Corporation has begun initial works for setting up the Rs 5,150-crore LNG terminal at Ennore near here, a top official said today.
The company had inked a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu government for the project.
Indian Oil Corporation would hold 45 per cent stake in it while five per cent would be with the state government.
"It is a Rs 5,000-crore plus (Rs 5,150 crore) project. The latest update is that works like clearing land have already started," IOC chairman B Ashok told reporters here.
He said the company had recently issued contracts to Mitsubish Heavy Industries and Black and Veatch for setting up the refrigeration tankages and regasification facility at the terminal.
"There are three major contracts for this project. One is refrigeration tankages, regasification facility and third is the marine facilities. We have already placed contracts for the first and second to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Black and Veatch, respectively.", he added.
"The work has already started there like clearing of the land. It should become operational early 2018", he said.
To a query on whether there were opportunities available in Iran, he said the company has to "wait and watch" as adding more source for supply of crude would be "beneficiary".
"We have to wait and watch that market. There is a lot of cautious optimism, I would say. It will be good for India. Because there will be one more additional source of availability since we are a consuming country," he said.
Earlier speaking about the performance of Chennai Petroleum Corporation for the quarter ending June 30, 2015, Ashok said, "CPCL achieved a turnover of Rs 11,386 crore for the first quarter ending June 30, 2015 as against Rs 14,222 crore in the same period of previous year".
"The reduction in turnover is mainly due to sharp fall in prices of petroleum products from the second half of 2014-15," he said.
The profit after tax of CPCL for the April-June quarter of FY16 increased to Rs 924 crore, up by 81 per cent from Rs 510 crore registered during the year-ago period, he added.
"The increase in profits is on account of the operational performance of the refinery... Second yield of the refinery improved to 74 per cent from 70 per cent," Ashok said.
