IOC wants more LNG-by-truck from Ennore

IndianOil is planning to increase LNG send-out by truck from its new Ennore terminal while it waits for completion of R-LNG evacuation pipelines.

IOC director planning and business development GK Satish tells us 14 road tankers of 40-tonne capacity each are already transporting Ennore LNG to customers in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and also to customers like French glass manufacturer Saint Gobain in the industrial cluster of Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. "We have two truck loading bays now but plan to add two more (at Ennore)," he said on the sidelines of IOC’s press meet in Mumbai on August 28 to announce financial results.

Satish added Ennore is presently supplying 500,000 t/y LNG to IOC-affiliate Chennai Petroleum, Madras Fertilizers, and Tamilnadu Petroproducts through the completed 22.65-km Ennore to Manali pipeline - part of a 1244-km under-construction IOC pipeline to Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu through Thiruvalluvar, Bangalore, Puducherry, Nagapattinam and Madurai. Satish believes Ennore capacity utilisation will improve significantly after this pipeline is commissioned by March 2021.

"Demand (for Ennore R-LNG) is well beyond (present terminal capacity of) 5m t/y," he stressed.