RGTIL applies to lay new MP-UP pipeline

Amidst buzz of a possible cancellation of its earlier gas pipelines’ authorisation, Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd is keen to build a 300-km pipeline from Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh to Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh for supplying coal-bed methane (CBM) gas.

RGTIL is owned by Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries. The CBM is from its own block at Shahdol. Output from there might begin in 2014.

The company had authorisation for building four trunk pipelines — Kakinada-Haldia, Kakinada-Chennai, Chennai-Tuticorin and Chennai-Bangalore-Mangalore. These were scheduled to be completed this year. However, it did not make much progress on construction, citing unavailability of gas. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board had pushed for cancelling the authorisation given to RGTIL. “This (cancellation) is being considered and no decision has been taken so far,” a senior petroleum ministry official said.

RGTIL has now approached PNGRB with an Expression of Interest (EoI) to lay down the Shahdol-Phulpur line (Phulpur is near Allahabad). According to the EOI, it has identified 73 potential consumers along the route. These include the likes of JSW Ispat Steel, Indiabulls Power, Essar Oil, Nirma, Tata Chemicals, NTPC and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertiliser.

“In the light of the planned CBM gas production from the second half of 2014, expeditious execution is needed for this pipeline,” RGTIL said in the EOI.

RGTIL operates a 1,400-km gas pipeline network in the country. Of the nine authorisations granted by the government for 5,523-km of pipelines in 2007, RGTIL (through its subsidiary firm, Relogistics Infrastructure Ltd, won the four mentioned earlier, spanning 2,175 km. The remaining five pipelines, covering 3,348 km, are with GAIL and the government-owned company has started work on these.

RGTIL has been maintaining that it is in a position to complete its four allotted pipelines in two years, but wanted to synchronise construction with gas sourcing. KG-D6 and other eastern offshore gas fields were supposed to be the source of fuel for these but in view of falling output and no other field coming on stream in the near future it does not make economic sense to built it, RGTIL had told the ministry in a May review meeting.