Pradhan dials Korea to rescue GAIL LNG ship tender

With his push to get LNG tankers made in India getting a poor response, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today knocked on the doors of world's largest LNG manufacturer Korea to rescue the tender.
On Oil Ministry's instance, state-owned GAIL India had floated a tender to charter hire nine newly built ships for transporting natural gas liquefied at sub-zero temperature (LNG) from US. It called for bids in lots of three with the condition that at least one ship in each of lots should be built in India.
But the tender evoked lukewarm response with major shipbuilders not wanting to move to India.

Against this backdrop, Pradhan today met Joon-Gyu Lee, Ambassador of Korea here to apprise him of GAIL's requirement for charter hiring of nine ships, an official statement said.
The delivery of LNG would start from December, 2017. The GAIL tender has already been extended twice and it needs to be finalised and awarded by May 2015 to start supplies by end-2017.
"A global tender has been floated by GAIL for hiring of nine LNG ships in three lots of 3 ships each. There is a mandatory provision in the tender of building one ship in each lot in partnership with Indian shipyards. This is a part of the 'Make in India' effort," the statement said.

It said four Korean shipyards qualify for GAIL's tender requirements - Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Ship Building and Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries and STX Offshore and Shipbuilding (STX).

"Three Indian shipyards are interested in the project. However there is need for collaboration with Korean shipyards.
"Korean shipyards have citied government restrictions in technology transfer. One of the restrictions cited is that technology of LNG ship design and construction has been registered as Korea's National Core Technology and is handled at the national level and controlled by Korean Government," it said.
The Korean Ambassador was impressed upon that the GAIL tender is one of the largest tenders globally and presents a very good opportunity for the Korean shipbuilders to expand their business to India, the statement said.

"Korean Government intervention in sorting out the technology transference hindrance would greatly help in collaboration between the Indian and Korean shipyards," it said.
The issue was also raised during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye in Myanmar on November 12 on the margins of ASEAN Summit.
"The ambassador promised to report the matter to his Government to find a solution to the issue at the earliest," the statement said.