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GAIL India today commissioned a Rs 4,500-crore pipeline carrying gas from Dabhol LNG terminal into the city.
The Dabhol-Bengaluru pipeline can carry 16 million standard cubic meters (mscm) of gas a day and the 73 km laid in the city will help initiate CNG supplies to automobiles as well as piped cooking gas to households, said Oil Minister M. Veerappa Moily.
Further, by the end of February, another state oil and gas major, ONGC, plans to set up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal near its Mangalore refinery in Karnataka.
The project was put on the back-burner some six years back.
First customer
GAIL’s 1,000-km pipeline will help industries in Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Bellary, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Ramanagaram and Bangalore, that have been burdened by costly and polluting liquid fuels such as naphtha and diesel. Further, this will help the Karnataka State power generation utility save Rs 800 crore annually by reducing costs, improving efficiency and significantly cutting down pollution caused by liquid fuels. Recently, GAIL began supply of gas through the line to its first customer, Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts.
Apart from this, there are plans to import additional LNG. Moily said: “In the next 15 days, ONGC and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will sign an MoU for putting up a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at Mangalore.”
The 5-million-tonne capacity LNG import facility will be set up through a joint venture of ONGC and BPCL and an international energy firm, according to sources.
ONGC has initiated talks with Mitsui Group of Japan for this venture and, additionally, both companies may look at strengthening their partnership by setting up a gas-based power plant in India.
There are plans to extend this pipeline to Kochi by the end of 2014.
Bidadi plant
GAIL also signed an agreement to supply 0.6 million tonnes of LNG to Karnataka Power Corporation’s proposed 1,400-MW Bidadi power plant.
According to Managing Director M.R. Kamble, the first phase of KPCL’s power plant will now be built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,800 crore in the next 24-30 months.
Together with 1,400 MW Bidadi power plants, Bangalore would have 1,750 MW of generation capacity against a demand of 1,500 MW.
>venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in
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