Gas Authority of India (GAIL) on Monday said it will receive the cargo at LNG terminal at Dabhol by December 28, and expects commissioning by early February.

“We will get the first cargo on December 28. We expect the terminal to be commissioned in the next month-and-a-half,” GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi told reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI event here.

He further said the company expects to get 25 cargos in the next calendar year. “This year we have bought around 16 cargos. Next year, we expect to get another 25.”

When asked about the company’s decision to block the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) bid to sell its 5.2 per cent stake in Petronet LNG to Qatar Petroleum Corp, Tripathi said: “Our board has not agreed to waive off the proposal to forego the first right of refusal to acquire ADB’s stake in Petronet. This is so because it is strategically important for us to have total stake in the company.”

Petronet is registered as a private firm but is half- owned by four state-run oil firms – Indian Oil, ONGC, BPCL and GAIL.

If any of these promoters raise their holding, Petronet would turn into a state firm in contravention of the basis for going public in May 2004, and would require approval for majority shareholders to change the status.

GAIL initially suggested the ADB stake be split equally among the state-run promoters. While others initially supported the bid, they backtracked under direction from the oil ministry and have waived off their first right of refusal.

But GAIL has refused to budge and is ready to pick up the entire ADB stake. As recently as last fortnight, the company informed the Petroleum Ministry that as a public sector entity it could not give up its pre-emption right and compromise corporate interest as a gas company.

“We have informed this to the government. However, it all depends on the government decision,” he added.

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