India Set To Import Gas From Gulf

India is set to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) which would be a feedstock to run a large number of industries and power stations.

At least two proposals to bring LNG have advanced enough to make gas imports, mostly from Gulf countries, a reality, official sources said.

The Gas Authority of India is awaiting offers for commercial terms of gas supply by March 25 from seven bidders shortlisted earlier after technical scrutiny, the sources said. The selected suppliers are to deliver 5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG, 2.5 mtpa each at Cochin port in Kerala and Dahej port in Gujarat. This would be enough to fuel 5,000 mw power stations. GAIL is acting on behalf of Petronet LNG, a consortium of four public sector enterprises including GAIL itself, which is aiming at two more LNG import projects of similar capacity at Mangalore and Ennore.

 

A Mitsubhishi-led consortium has done technical and commercial feasibility study for the Cochin LNG terminal and three other LNG import sites.

An Enron LNG import project is finalising deals with consumers in western India for three mtpa LNG. This will give a push to its proposed 5 mtpa gas liquefaction plant in Qatar as the balance 2 mtpa quantity already stands tied up with its 2,184 mw power station coming up at Dabhol in Maharashtra. About $5 billion investment has been planned for the liquefaction plant in Qatar, LNG tankers, re-gasification facilities at Dabhol port and the connected distribution pipeline network. Over 50 mtpa LNG should be coming into India if all the LNG import projects approved by the government and proposed by other investors are to mature. l IANS

Other players interested in the LNG business include big international names like Shell, Total and British Gas. In terms of sheer size, Reliance Industries Ltd is ahead of them as it has planned two terminals of five mtpa capacity each at Hazira and Jamnagar ports, both in Gujarat.

Domestic gas production in India, placed at 64 million cubic metres per day (Mmcmd) in 1997 March-end fiscal is officially seen to be stagnating around 68 million Mmcmd by the year 1999-2000 in the absence of any new significant discovery of hydrocarbons. But the demand is rising to reach 78 Mmcmd in 1999-2000, 120 Mmcmd in 2004-2005 and 215 Mmcmd in 2009-2010.

The Indian focus has shifted to LNG imports in tankers from gas transportation through pipelines from Oman and Iran. Officially both the pipeline projects are on, but practical difficulties have virtually hit the project prospects.

Technical problems in laying the pipeline in sea depths, financial constraints and gas reserves position in Oman have hindered any progress on the deep-sea Oman-India pipeline.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have stood in the way of a pipeline from Iran along the continental shelf touching Pakistan. Islamabad has not permitted the route surveys to be carried out by the consultants chosen by India and Iran.

The uneasy relationship between the two countries has also stood in the way of a plan by the Unocal Corporation-led consortium for the extension of a pipeline to India which will initially transport gas from Daulatabad gas field in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Multan in Punjab province of Pakistan.

Spurred by the improvement of relations between New Delhi and Dhaka and the expected natural gas boom in Bangladesh, Unocal and Enron are also talking of laying pipelines through Bangladesh

territory to bring gas from Myanmar and Bangladesh to eastern parts of India.

But analysts point to the strong anti-India sentiment in the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and various groups in that country becoming a barrier in building pipelines for gas exports there.