Torrent imports India's first 'parcel LNG cargo'
Ahmedabad-based Torrent Power can proudly claim to be the first company to import a ‘parcel’ or commingled LNG cargo to India.
Torrent - promoted by billionaire brothers Sudhir and Samir Mehta - bought a 13,800-cubic metre parcel cargo as part of a 158,533-cubic metre cargo GAIL brought in at Dahej on November 8 aboard LNG tanker BW GDF Suez Paris - sourced through Marubeni and GdF from Yemen LNG. After giving Torrent its share, GAIL kept the remaining 144,733-cubic metres.
This is the third cargo to come in under a four-cargo deal GAIL signed with Marubeni last year. Torrent will use the gas to commission a 400-MW unit at its Siemens-constructed 1200-MW DGEN power station in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Dahej.
Torrent finished laying a 24-inch diameter, 10-km dedicated gas pipeline from the Dahej terminal to the power station this year and is likely to bring in more parcel cargoes to commission two other units of 400-MW each. When fully commissioned, the DGEN station will need 8m cm/d.
“Other companies in the SEZ might follow Torrent’s example (and use R-LNG),” we hear. Torrent benefits from low gas transportation tariffs because its power station is so close to the Dahej terminal.
Torrent distributes 14bn units of electricity every year to 2.76m customers in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Surat in Gujarat, Bhiwandi in Maharashtra and Agra in Uttar Pradesh.