Shell plans to double Hazira LNG plant capacity - India head

By Arathy S Nair and Tanvi Mehta

REUTERS - Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to double the capacity of its liquefied natural gas import facility at Hazira on India's west coast to 10 million tonnes a year, a top company executive said on Friday.

Shell Gas B.V, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, owns a 74 percent stake in Hazira LNG Ltd, while Total Gaz Electricite France, a unit of France's Total SA, holds the rest.

"We've done all the work, now it's sort of taking a look at when is the right timing in terms of demand that's available," Nitin Prasad, chairman of Shell Companies in India, told Reuters, without giving a timeline for the expansion.

A government panel said in a report in April 2015 that Hazira LNG will look to expand the capacity of its LNG terminal in the western state of Gujarat by 50 percent to 7.5 million tonnes per annum in the fiscal year to March 2017.

Shell on Friday opened a new technology centre in Bengaluru, the capital of the southern state Karnataka. The technology hub, Shell's third in the world, is aimed at expanding the company's research and development activities in Asia.

India aims to raise the share of natural gas in its energy mix to 15 percent in the next three years from about 6.5 percent at present, as it attempts to achieve energy security while keeping pollution levels down.

India's gas imports in April 2016-February 2017 rose 16.4 percent to 22.53 billion cubic metres, according to government data.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair and Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)