Petronet LNG to finish expansion by December

State-owned Petronet LNG Ltd said that it's on schedule to complete doubling the capacity of its Dahej terminal in Gujarat by December.

The expansion will allow the company to start importing 10 million metric tonnes (mt) of LNG annually, Managing Director Prosad Dasgupta said at the Asia Gas Partnership Summit in New Delhi on Monday.

Imports, including purchases from Australia and spot cargoes, are expected at 7.5 million tonnes this year, he said.

Petronet is building two new storage tanks and an additional jetty at the Dahej facility in Gujarat state to handle larger ships. The company plans to construct a 2.5 million-tonne-a-year terminal in Kochi in south India before switching its expansion focus to gas-fired power plants.

State-owned Petronet plans to build a 1,200-megawatt power plant near Dahej at a cost of Rs 3,100 crore ( about $776 million), Dasgupta said.

LNG is gas chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six- hundredth of its original volume for transportation by tanker to destinations not connected by pipeline. On arrival it is turned back into gas for delivery to users such as power plants, factories and households.