IOC and Petronas select Triune for LPG project
Indian Oils joint venture with Petronas is set to choose a Project Management Consultant for its proposed 0.6m t/y LPG import terminal at Ennore port in southern India.
PETROWATCH learns two consultants submitted bids in response to the tender: state-owned Projects and Development India and the Delhi-based Triune Group. The price bids have been opened and Triune has emerged the lowest bidder, we hear.
Some discussions are going on with them and a Letter of Intent will be issued sometime mid-August. Once Triune is appointed, it must prepare a detailed project report before issuing a tender for the proposed terminals EPC contract, which will most likely be issued in October.
IOC and Petronas want the Ennore LPG terminal up and running by 2008. Construction will begin on 50 acres of land already owned by IOC and the finished terminal will have two cryogenic LPG storage tanks: one of 15,000 tonnes capacity and another of 10,000 tonnes capacity.
The joint venture will use a jetty of the Ennore port thats being developed now by a private investor, we hear. LPG unloaded at Ennore will be evacuated through road tanker trucks.
There are no plans to put up railway sidings or pipelines, we hear. Of course IOC or GAIL might decide to lay LPG pipelines at a later date.
IOC and Petronas are yet to receive clearance for the project from central and state environment protection authorities. Applications for environmental clearance were submitted in April and May, we hear.
Clearance is likely to come in eight or nine months. Till the environmental clearance is in hand, no physical work can begin at the site.
Earlier we used to start preliminary physical work such as site levelling and so on but now with the environmental authorities being very strict, nobody wants to take any chances, says a source close to the project. What if as a result of the public hearing, environmental clearance is refused
