Petronet LNG to Double Capacity in 5 Years

Petronet LNG plans to double its capacity to 25-30 million tonne in the next five years, company’s managing director and CEO, A Balyan said.

The company is in the final stages of building its second terminal at Kochi, and looking for its first terminal on the east coast at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh.

For Kochi, Petronet has signed a long term contract to supply about 1.5 million tonne with Exxon Mobil from their Gorgon Project, Australia, and the supply will start from early 2015.

In an interview to Deccan Chronical newspaper Balyan said that the company is looking at long term contracts. Rasgas has been a major supplier and the Qatari firm has been supplying 7.5 million tonne of LNG annually.

He also said that Gazprom is a potential supplier for the company as the Russian energy giant is changing its strategies from being just piped gas supplier to LNG supplier.

Africa also has a huge potential in terms of LNG supplies as several projects are coming up there, especially in Mozambique, Tanzania, Angola and Cameroon.

Talking about the Kochi terminal, Balyan said that the project is almost ready and the company expects first shipment by October and start commercial operations by December.

Petronet is also enhancing Dahej’s output from 10 million tonne per annum to 15 million tonne.