According to media reports, Petronet LNG may operationalise its Phase-I of the natural gas terminal at Kochi by the end of August 2013.
The company, which initially planned to commission the project during March 2013, faced several roadblocks.
Work on the project in the southern end of Vypin island was completed in December last year.
The company could not meet the revised deadline of June 2013 for commissioning the Rs 4,200-crore terminal owing to certain issues. For one, its customers were not ready to receive the gas. Another problem is the slow pace in laying a 5 mn mtpa pipeline and marketing tie-ups. The pipeline is expected to handle 2.5 mmtpa in the beginning.
The pipeline project faces resistance from the land owners in some districts. Public sector GAIL
is facing difficulty in acquiring land for the pipeline from Kochi to Kootanad in Palakkad district and thereon to Bangalore and Mangalore. GAIL, which is implementing the project, managed to lay just 30 km.
GAIL completed phase-I of the pipeline project, involving 43 km in Kochi. On the marketing side, tie-ups have been entered into with seven major customers (Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore, Travancore Cochin Chemicals, BSES/REL, Nita Gelatin, Hindustan Organic Chemicals and BPCL).
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