GSPC wants LNG-by-truck facility at Mundra
Pet rocks, disco dancing, bell-bottom jeans, Gluten-free diets – fads come and go.
But the latest to hit the oil and gas industry in India seems to be the idea of transporting LNG by truck to customers without access to gas pipelines. Petronet-LNG is leading the way with LNG by truck sales from its Kochi and Dahej terminals.
Shell and Total are considering similar sales from their Hazira LNG terminal. Now GSPC is thinking of setting up two truck loading bays at its upcoming 5m t/y Mundra LNG terminal in Gujarat.
Toyo Engineering, which is setting up the Mundra regasification facilities, will construct the truck loading bays as GSPC has not issued a separate tender. When contacted, a senior GSPC LNG source confirms the development but adds GSPC and partner Adani Gas are still assessing demand for LNG before deciding how many trucks will be loaded at Mundra.
“In 2007, Petronet-LNG started by sending out just one truck/day,” he says. “But in the past seven years, its LNG by road business has grown several-fold.
” GSPC’s reasoning is simple: if LNG in cryogenic tankers can go from Dahej across Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and from Kochi to different parts of Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, why can’t LNG from Mundra be trucked to Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi?