Pradhan visits LNG tanker Aseem
After more than two years as India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan has finally managed to find time to visit the country's first and largest LNG terminal.
Pradhan witnessed the discharge of LNG at Dahej on February 28 from Petronet-LNG's 155,000-cubic metre capacity tanker Aseem. Malta-flagged Aseem had arrived at the Dahej jetty a day earlier loaded with long-term LNG from Qatar's RasGas.
"Pradhan was impressed with what he saw," reports a Dahej source. "He had wanted to see how LNG is discharged from a tanker to the onshore tanks." Pradhan also boarded Aseem and spoke to the tanker's crew, borrowing binoculars to survey the choppy Arabian Sea.
But the real aim of his visit to Dahej was to review preparations for Narendra Modi to inaugurate the neighbouring ONGC Petro additions (OPaL) plant on March 7, set up at a cost of Rs30,000cr ($4.5bn). Pradhan flew into Vadodara from Delhi in the evening on February 27 and left for Dahej later that night.
On February 28 he reviewed security arrangements for the PM's visit and days later flew to Houston for CERA Week from March 6-10.