Petronet LNG Limited’s project at Kochi is one of the largest investment in Kerala in the recent years. Built at a cost of Rs.4,500 crores, it is one of the finest facilities in the world and has been constructed by contractors from Japan, Taiwan and various other Countries.
The project contains facilities to import, store and regasify 5 million tonnes per annum equivalent of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). It has been constructed to provide a clean and green fuel to the industries and transport sectors. LNG is clean and safe fuel due to the molecular structure of LNG and results in lower particulate emissions than diesel and other fossil fuels.
It also provides less greenhouse gas and toxic emissions than low-sulphurdiesel and requires a much higher ignition temperature than diesel etc.
Petronet LNG Limited’s (PLL’s) Kochi LNG project is poised to bring an industrial revolution in the State of Kerala by helping various existing and upcoming industrial units. It will also help transform the household and the transport sectors once they switch to natural gas usage.
The LNG terminal would be an important and strategic source for providing uninterrupted, clean and affordable fuel alternate for the State.
The project has started supplying gas to the refinery at Kochi and to the Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) besides a number of other smaller consumers.
Ernakulam district has been presently included in the fourth round of bidding for City Gas Distribution (CGD) project. Many other districts are expected to follow. LNG is going to play an important role to meet this growing demand of CGD sectors in the State.
More than 30 per cent of the electricity produced in the State comes from thermal power plants, of which more than 80 percent uses liquid fuel. This dependence on liquid fuels makes the cost of generation one of the highest in the country. Substituting these fossils fuels with the natural gas / LNG would be an economical and cleaner option for the State.
GAIL (India) Ltd., one of the promoting companies of Petronet LNG Limited is laying a network of pipelines across the State of Kerala. Plans are underway to connect various clusters of industries and also some of the large power plants like NTPCKayamkulam.
Petronet LNG Limited currently imports 7.50 MMTPA of LNG from Qatar under a 25 year long-term agreement. It also imports LNG on a spot and short-term basis from various suppliers all across the world, ranging from Nigeria, Australia, Trinidad & Tobago, Egypt and many other places.
Petronet LNG Limited has a 10 Million Metric Tonnes per Annum (MMTPA) plant in the State of Gujarat. It has recently embarked upon the process of further expanding the capacity of its Dahej plant to 15 MMTPA. It is also in the process of setting up a 5 MMTPA facility at Gangavaram in the State of Andhra Pradesh.
With these three plants PLL hopes to have a combined LNG capacity of 25 MMTPA by 2017-18, making it one of the largest LNG terminals in South East Asia. In June 2012, a team of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) visited Petronet’s Dahej LNG import and regasification terminal and conducted a two-day methane leak detection and measurement study. EPA has issued a letter of appreciation to Petronet on joining Natural Gas STAR International and maintaining low methane emission footprint at Dahej facility.
