ITD bids low for Dahej jetty
As expected, Thailand-based ITD Cementation has bid the lowest for the marine facilities part of Petronet-LNG's reissued tender for a third Dahej jetty.
On June 18 (2024), Petronet-LNG opened price bids where ITD quoted about Rs1100cr ($137m) and Afcons quoted Rs1300cr ($162m). Petronet-LNG's marine facilities budget is believed to be around Rs1000cr ($125m).
An industry source is not surprised ITD bid the lowest. Some claim Petronet-LNG wanted ITD to win.
"ITD hadn't bid in the previous tender but was expected to bid in the new tender," said a source. "As price bids had been opened in the previous tender, the numbers were public knowledge, which helped ITD bid aggressively."
He adds that because the difference between ITD's quote and Petronet-LNG's budget is 10%, "there could be some price negotiations" before the LoA is awarded. Petronet-LNG received bids by the extended May 6 (2024) deadline.
In the previous tender, Afcons bid lowest at about Rs1350cr ($162m); L&T followed with about Rs1800cr ($225m). Meanwhile, Petronet-LNG has yet to open sole bidder Toyo Engineering's price bid in a tender for the topside facilities of the proposed third Dahej jetty.
Toyo submitted its bid on May 21 (2024). In the previous tender, Toyo bid Rs766cr ($93.4m) while L&T quoted Rs908cr ($110.7m).
L&T is believed to have stayed away from the reissued tender because it currently has a substantial workload, both overseas and in India. Still, this surprised Petronet-LNG, which had also expected competition from Mumbai-based Ace Pipeline contracts and Taiwan-based CTCI-Cinda.
Petronet-LNG is expanding Dahej's capacity from 17.5m t/y to 22.5m t/y. But the third jetty will be used to import ethane, propane and LNG to feed a proposed petrochemicals complex comprising a 750,000 t/y Propane Dehydrogenation facility and a 500,000 t/y Polypropylene facility.