Informist, Monday, May 23, 2022

By Sunil Raghu

AHMEDABAD - After a delay of nearly seven years, Gujarat State Petronet Ltd started commercial operations of its 1,380-km Mehsana-Bhatinda gas pipeline late last week, sources told Informist.

Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, which is the first customer, started receiving gas for its city gas distribution network in Rohtak from Wednesday.

Even though the initial supply is minimal, the company's transmission network of 2,700 km will increase by a little over 50%. There is also potential for an immediate jump of 15% in natural gas volumes over the 32 mscmd it currently transmits.

The pipeline was approved by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board in 2011 and was slated to be commissioned in 2016. The project got late due to various reasons including getting statutory clearances, delay in getting land and permission from farmers for right of usage to lay the pipeline.

The pipeline has been laid by GSPL India Gasnet Ltd, a special purpose vehicle by Gujarat State Petronet along with Indian Oil Corp Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd. Gujarat State Petronet Ltd has a 52% stake in GSPL India Gasnet, while IOC has 26%, and the rest is equally owned by BPCL and HPCL.

The pipeline from Mehsana in Gujarat to Bhatinda in Punjab will supply gas to fertiliser companies, refineries and city gas distributors along the route, who have already signed gas purchase pacts.

The pipeline will connect operational liquefied natural gas terminals at Dahej, Hazira and Mundra as well as upcoming ones at Chhara and Jafrabad in Gujarat to IOC’ s 15-mln-tn Panipat refinery, HPCL-Mittal Energy’s 11.3-mln-tn Bhatinda refinery and HPCL’s 9-mln-tn refinery at Barmer.

Currently, IOC’s Panipat refinery gets gas from GAIL but could use this pipeline for its capacity expansion, sources said.

The pipeline will also supply natural gas to National Fertilizers Ltd's units at Panipat and Bhatinda, which currently source domestic gas and LNG from GAIL (India). City gas distribution projects in Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab too will be connected to this network, the sources said.

Even though the pipeline is slated to be till Bhatinda, the company, has been able to commission the pipeline only till Panipat because of resistance from some farmers in Punjab. Of the 50-km pipe length in Punjab, it is yet to convince farmers along a 7-km route to either sell their land or give them the right of usage, company sources said.

"The land is intermittent and Gujarat State Petro has little option but to wait for the farmers to give their nod," a senior state government official said.

At 1300 IST, shares of Gujarat State Petro were 1.1% lower at 269.65 rupees on the National Stock Exchange.

End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Maheswaran Parameswaran

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