GAIL plans major forays in Orissa

19 December 2005

Mumbai: GAIL India Ltd has announced that it plans to venture in to Orissa at a total investment of Rs15,000 crore. During a meeting with Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on December 16, 2005, Proshanto Banerjee, chairman and managing director, GAIL India, had discussed the possibility of GAIL''s investments in the state. Also present during the meeting were senior officials including Orissa''s chief secretary Sunil.

Officials from GAIL and the state government will soon finalise a comprehensive "energy cooperation agreement", which would pave the way for GAIL''s investments in Orissa.

GAIL has been actively pursuing surface coal gassification (SCG) opportunities in India, with Shell as the technology provider and UDHE as the DFR consultants. Talcher has been identified as a suitable location in Orissa and the project implementation would involve an estimated investment of about Rs2,000 crore. The project would convert 4,400-tonnes per day of coal into valuable syn gas, which can feed a 4500-tpd urea plant. Alternatively, the syn gas can also be used for power generation.

The state government has been keen to involve GAIL in a grassroots power plant in the state involving investment of around Rs4,000 crore, which is interested in being a fuel supplier.

GAIL has carried out detailed market studies for natural gas in Orissa and has completed a DFR for a high pressure 1,140km trunk pipeline between Kakinada and Haldia, which would cover Balasore, Bhadark, J K Road, Cuttack, Khurda, Janzam (Behrampor) in Orissa.

The pipeline is planned to be implemented in synchronisation with gas supplies and would involve investment to the tune of Rs4,000 crore. This pipeline would feed spur pipelines to various mega steel industries, fertiliser plants, small and medium scale industries in the state. In addition, the gas pipeline would pave the way for city gas distribution projects in the state of Orissa to bring CNG and piped natural gas to cities and towns in the state. The state government has indicated its preference for Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.