CAIRN: Anger at Raageshwari pipeline delays
Just a month ago, in early March, Cairn dramatically slashed its CAPEX for 2015-16 from $1.2bn to $500m because of falling oil prices.
So it is unsurprising manufacturers are worrying about Cairn's delay awarding a tender to buy 40,000 tonnes of steel pipe for its proposed 200-km gas pipeline from from the Raageshwari Gas Terminal (RGT) at Barmer in Rajasthan to a processing facility operated by Gujarat State Petronet at Palanpur in Gujarat. “Cairn has asked us to extend our bid validity four times,†says an angry pipe manufacturer.
In March, we hear, Cairn wrote to pre-qualified bidders Welspun, Man Industries and Jindal Saw asking them to again extend the validity of their bids, originally submitted in September 2014. "Luckily there's no bid bond to extend," says another pipe manufacturer.
Cairn wants to begin supplying up to 3m cm/d of gas to GSPL's Palanpur processing facility from April-October 2016. In addition to the 200-km main trunk pipeline with a 30-inch diameter, Cairn will also lay 30-km of infield or feeder lines with 10-20-inch diameters.
Cairn explains the delay in award of the tender on a lack of official clearances. "We need some approvals before opening bids," he said.
"I can't say more." Cairn issued the pipe supply tender on August 14 last year.
