Dabhol project to run on gas by next month: Deora
Minister says plant will get gas once Dahej-Uran pipeline is completed.
By TNN |
MUMBAI: Finally, there is some good news for the ill-fated Dabhol power company, if Union petroleum minister Murli Deora is to be believed. The plant will soon start getting the much-needed supply of gas to generate power.
The plant will start generating electricity using imported natural gas by mid-June once work on the 576-km long Dahej-Uran gas pipeline gets completed, petroleum minister Murli Deora said in Surat on Monday. “The work on the pipeline is expected to be completed by the end of this month and the plant will be switched over to gas from the current fuel naphtha by mid-June,” Mr Deora said.
He was speaking to mediapersons after commissioning the first stretch of the pipeline — the 100-km-long part from Dahej to Surat — which will feed gas to the beleaguered power project in Maharashtra.
With gas flowing from Dahej, where Petronet LNG imports and regassifies liquefied natural gas, into the first stretch of the 576-km Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline, decks have also been cleared for resumption of the work on a 12-km stretch of the pipeline in Chourasiya Taluka in Surat district.
The minister said problems with the Gujarat government regarding laying of the 12-km stretch have been “sorted out”. About 354 km of the pipeline is in Maharashtra, while 222 km lies in Gujarat. It has a capacity to carry 12 million cubic meters of gas per day and is being set up at a cost of about Rs 3,200 crore.
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Work on the 12-km length was stalled as Gujarat government opposed the project on grounds that the gas pricing formula worked out for Dabhol would result in rise in price of gas for industries in the state. The issue was resolved after the intervention of the central government. “The gas has reached Surat,” Gail chairman and managing director UD Choubey said. The work on the pipeline in Maharashtra is complete and only 12 km in Gujarat, remains. The inter-state gas pipeline will also help link important gas markets of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Currently, the gas market in Gujarat has access to five different gas supply sources — South Bassein fields, Panna-Mukta Tapti fields, Lakshmi fields, Dahej LNG terminal and Shell LNG terminal. Maharashtra, on the other hand, has access to supplies from only the Bombay High fields which is declining fast. Mr Choubey said LNG meant for the Dabhol project will be imported from Qatar.
“Imported gas procured from spot-market will be supplied to Dabhol till a long-term tie-up for gas is made,” he said, adding gas from Qatar was being imported at a cost of $8-9 per million British thermal units. He said the LNG would be imported at the Dahej terminal. When asked as to at what cost the power generated from Dabhol will be given to power-starved Maharashtra, Deora said, “I cannot say about the prices at this moment.”
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