2nd cargo berthed at Petronet LNG’s Kochi terminal

The liquefied natural carrier Fuwairit carried 1,38.000 cu m of liquefied natural gas from India’s reliable energy partner Ras Gas, Qatar, and arrived at the Kochi liquefied natural  terminal. The ship berthed at 12.50 pm Indian standard time on 15 November, 2013.

Petronet LNG commissioned it second liquefied natural  terminal at Kochi, Kerala in August 2013 when Will Energy berthed at its jetty. However, certain technical glitches delayed the berthing process.

This time Petronet LNG proved its acumen in liquefied natural terminal operations once again and berthed the ship with higher capacity smoothly.

The Kochi liquefied natural  terminal is currently supplying natural gas to the Kochi refinery, FACT and  Nitta Gelatin and in future, with the availability of pipeline network, can cater to the needs of refinery, petrochemical,  fertiliser,  power, steel, transportation and CGD in the states  of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Earlier in the week, The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the Ministry of Environment and Forests deferred clearance of land-based liquefied natural gas terminal at Gangavaram port in Andhra Pradesh, being developed by Petronet LNG Ltd, for want of compliance reports.

Citing pollution issues that were raised during the public hearing on the project, the Expert Appraisal Committee has advised the company to obtain report on compliance status of EC/Consent conditions from the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board and regional office of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Bengaluru.

Deferring the project proposal, the committee said it will consider it after the issues are addressed.

Petronet LNG Ltd is jointly promoted by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), GAIL (India) Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and it owns and operates the first LNG Regasification terminal in India, with a capacity of 10 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) at Dahej.

It has approached the Ministry of Environment and Forests for environmental clearance (EC) for setting up 10 million tonnes per annum LNG import, storage and re-gasification facilities at Gangavaram Port.

‘Since pollution problems from Gangavaram Port were raised during public hearing, the committee suggested to obtain report on compliance status of EC/ consent conditions of Gangavaram Port from Port, APCB and RO, MoEF, Bangalore.

‘In view of the foregoing observations, the committee recommend to defer the proposal. The proposal shall be reconsidered after the above observations are addressed and submitted,’ the Expert Appraisal Committee said in its observation.

When contacted, Petronet LNG Director (Technical)  Rajender Singh,  said that they have replied to many issues raised by the Ministry before, and since it is an ongoing process, it may not delay the project schedule.

‘Currently we are in the process of tendering for various works. And negotiations are going on. I believe we are on schedule,’ said Singh.