Petronet-LNG in rush to expand Dahej to 20m t/y
Petronet-LNG has barely begun work to expand its Dahej LNG terminal from 10m t/y to 15m t/y but it is already preparing a further expansion to 20m t/y.
Next month on June 19 a public hearing is scheduled at Dahej to gauge local reaction to the proposed expansion following submission of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to the Gujarat government in April. Petronet-LNG plans to spend Rs2950cr ($530m) to expand Dahej to 15m t/y by end-2016 and a further Rs2750cr ($494m) for the expansion to 20m t/y by end-2020.
These costs include setting up LNG storage facilities and regassification facilities in addition to project management and project financing costs. Dahej currently has four 160,000 cubic metre LNG storage tanks.
In Phase-IIIA of the Dahej expansion, which will see capacity increase to 15m t/y, Petronet-LNG will install two additional storage tanks, each with 180,000-cubic metre capacity. In Phase-IIIB, which will see capacity increase to 20m t/y, Petronet-LNG will add another two 180,000 cubic metre storage tanks, taking the total at Dahej to eight.
This should help alleviate Dahej's problems with tanks being either too full or too empty, caused by wide fluctuations in R-LNG send-out by off-takers GAIL, IndianOil and Bharat Petroleum. "Late ship arrivals won’t be a problem any longer," says Petronet-LNG.
Work on the second jetty is proceeding apace with commissioning pencilled in for early next year. AFCONS has almost completed the marine facilities and Toyo Engineering is working on the topside.