GAIL reconstitutes original consortia for completion of Dabhol Terminal
By Our Corporate Bureau | 18 Jul 2005
New
Delhi: GAIL has successfully managed to reconstitute
the original EPC consortia in a major development towards
achieving early completion of the Dabhol LNG Terminal.
The consortia will undertake completion of the balance
works under the active supervision of two project management
consultants being engaged in this regard. NTPC is also
roping in GE for the completion of the power plant facilities.
The construction of the LNG terminal was abandoned in
June 2001, when the Dabhol project ran into contractual
problems. Thereafter, the Indian lenders had engaged
Tractebel of Belgium to assess the condition of the
facilities and develop a preservation regime for the
entire project. In April 2002, Punj Lloyd Limited was
engaged to undertake preservation of the project facilities
and since then, the arrangement is continuing.
Originally, Lingtec, which was an Enron affiliate, was
awarded the main EPC contract for constructing the LNG
terminal along with the marine facilities. In turn,
Lingtec had awarded two EPC sub-contracts. The first
contract pertaining to the regasification, tankage and
utilities at the LNG terminal was awarded to a consortium
comprising of Kvaerner and Whessoe, both of the UK and
Punj Lloyd Limited. The second contract pertaining to
the marine facilities comprising of the jetty, approach
channel and breakwater was awarded to a consortium of
Besix of Belgium and Kier of the UK. When the construction
work was abandoned, the facilities were complete to
an extent of about 75 per cent.
The absence of engineering database of the project and
the issues related to the ownership of the Intellectual
Property Rights of the technical documentation of the
project were major bottlenecks in the restart of the
construction activities. With the reconstitution of
the consortia, these problems have been solved to a
large extent. Besides, in view of many new build opportunities
for LNG terminal projects, EPC contractors do not feel
inclined to undertake abandoned jobs lying idle for
four years and also guarantee the performance of the
same.
Hence, erstwhile contractors are best suited to pick up such threads and complete the job and GAIL's efforts in this regard have paid