LNG terminal to remain with Dabhol's Ratnagiri plant

New Delhi, Sept 25 (UNI) The government today said the LNG terminal built within the Ratnagiri complex of 2,184 MW Dabhol power plant will not be hived off.

Speaking to the media, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the LNG terminal will remain as part of the project.

Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi at a meeting last month had observed the terminal may be sold to Petronet LNG, which would also be responsible for sourcing natural gas.

The proposal to hive off the terminal is being considered by the government to check cost and time over-runs in completing the terminal.

Ratnagiri Gas and Power, the GAIL-NTPC JV that owns the Dabhol plant, on taking over the plant last year, estimated the cost for completing 15 per cent of the balance work on the 2.5 million tonne LNG import and regassification terminal at Rs 710 crore.

The terminal needs an additional Rs 1,000 crore, plus the transfer cost of Rs 1,790 crore, which take the remaining total spend to about Rs 3,500 crore, which is nearly what a new 7.5 million tonne LNG plant would cost.

Mr Shinde said the plant which would restart after three months will cost of Rs 6.10 a unit as it would be now run on a new consignment of naptha that is more expensive due to current high oil prices.

He said the Maharshtra Chief Minister wants power from the project next month. The struggle to restart the project will be there till LNG, the original fuel is procured later this year. Earlier, when the 2.84 billion dollar Dabhol project was restarted on old naptha that was been stored at the site itself, the cost was working out to Rs 4.50 a unit.

''Now naptha prices are high with the crude price going up... even the consumers are prepared to pay higher,'' Mr Shinde said.

The per unit tariff for the naphtha-based power from Dabhol, which is run by the Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL), at Rs 6.10 was arrived at after the Centre waived customs duty on naphtha recently.

RGPPL has submitted its plea before the CERC for the sale of Dabhol power at Rs 6.10. The GoM had met at a time when RGPPL has been making repeated inquiries with the state government and the MahaVitaran on restarting the power purchase.

MahaVitaran had purchased power from the Dabhol project, which was revived on April 30 this year, till June end at the per unit tariff of Rs 4.25. MahaVitaran and RGPPL had entered into an adhoc agreement for the same.

UNI/RT RA PM2003