Electricity generated from liquid gas (LNG) imported from Australia by Petronet LNG Ltd at its upcoming Kochi terminal in Kerala will cost a record Rs 15 per unit at consumer end.
Petronet LNG (PLL) has signed a pact to buy 1.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Gorgon project in Australia at 14.5% of prevailing international oil price.
At $100 per barrel oil price, the LNG will cost $14.5 per million British thermal unit at the time of loading in ships on the Australian ports.
After adding $1.25-1.5 per mmBtu in shipping or transportation cost and 5% import/customs duty, the landed price of gas will be $16.5 per mmBtu.
The prices of the fuel to consumer after adding local transportation, taxes and other charges will cost about $19-20 per mmBtu or more than three times the delivered price predominant domestic gas.
Oil Secretary G C Chaturvedi, who is also the Chairman of PLL, in a recent presentation to Pulok Chatterjee, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, stated that the generation cost of power based on Gorgon LNG will be Rs 9 per unit, sources said.
At the consumer end, after adding other expenses such as distribution cost and transmission losses, the price would work out to Rs 15 per unit.
Meanwhile, PLL Managing Director Ashok Kumar Balyan today said the firm's 5 million tonne a year Kochi terminal will be commissioned in the current fiscal.
Initially, the terminal would operate at lesser capacity due to constraints of evacuating the gas in absence of pipeline network, he said.
The terminal would be able to operate at its full 5 million tonne capacity only by 2014 after pipelines transporting the fuel to consumers are built.
He said state-owned GAIL India would finish building pipelines from Kochi to Bangalore and Mangalore by the end of 2013, rather than March 2013 as earlier planned.
