Petronet LNG Ltd has received encouraging response to the proposal to lease out its underutilised storage tanks at the Kochi import facility.

As many as 14 companies, including some firms from abroad, have responded to the expressions of interest (EoIs) invited from LNG suppliers, traders and terminal operators for short- to medium-term leasing of storage capacity.

RK Garg, Director, Technical, Petronet LNG Ltd, said over phone from New Delhi that a good number of responses were from abroad and that the company would hold separate discussions with these firms to find out their exact requirements. After this, tenders will be floated inviting bids from potential parties.

The underutilisation of the ₹4,600-crore Kochi terminal was a major concern for PLL after its commissioning at Puthuvypeen near Kochi two years back. The public sector FACT, a major buyer, has stopped taking gas, citing uneconomic price levels.

The 5-million-tonne capacity terminal is now operating at less than 10 per cent of its total capacity and the company is losing heavily on account of underutilisation. Apart from this, the inordinate delay in laying pipelines to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to carry gas is also a cause for worry for the company.

In order to make the Kochi project an economically viable proposition, Petronet LNG has decided to lease out two LNG storage tanks for two years with 182,000 cubic metre gross capacity each.

The storage facilities can be used for companies engaged in worldwide operations in the LNG sector to stock gas and transport it to various destinations. The facility is also useful for overseas LNG suppliers who could use Kochi as an intermittent storage point for supplying customers in the east.

The Kochi terminal has a jetty with berthing and back-up facility to handle LNG carriers from 65,000 cubic metres to 216,000 cubic metres capacity.

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