Angry IOC hits out at GAIL over pipeline
IndianOil is furious with GAIL for trying to ‘steal’ its proposal to lay a 1175-km gas pipeline along the coast in Tamil Nadu to evacuate R-LNG from its upcoming Ennore LNG terminal to Nagapattinam, a mainly fishing town of around 100,000 inhabitants.
“We don’t understand why GAIL is bidding?!” says an angry IOC source. “If GAIL wins, the Ennore terminal will be stranded just like Kochi.
GAIL might jeopardise our terminal too.” Later this month (November) the PNGRB will open price bids after evaluating technical bids to lay the pipeline from IndianOil, GAIL and newcomer Chennai-based Indian Molasses.
When contacted a GAIL officer snaps: “We’re a gas transportation company and pipelines are our core business.” He adds refiners like IOC are grabbing GAIL’s pipeline business opportunities.
IOC submitted its EoI to the PNGRB on January 18, 2013 for an 18.35m cm/d capacity pipeline with 10-28-inch diameters and spur lines to Madurai, Tuticorin and Bengaluru.
