IndianOil to Buy 50 pc Stake in Adani-GSPC LNG Terminal

Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) said that its board has given its in-principle approval for acquiring up to 50 percent equity in GSPL LNG terminal in Gujarat.

GSPL LNG Ltd is a joint venture between Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC, a govt of Gujarat undertaking) and Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL).

GSPL LNG is setting up a 5 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) LNG terminal at Mundra Port in Gujarat. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, to be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, will have receipt, storage and re-gassification facilities for LNG and will be connected to Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL) existing pipelines network at Anjaar (Gujarat).

The estimated cost of the Mundra LNG terminal is approx Rs. 5,040 crores.

As the second largest player in natural gas in the country, IndianOil is making significant investments in natural gas infrastructures and marketing in line with the country’s changing energy mix.

“We already have investments across the gas value chain, from LNG import terminals to city gas distribution networks, the major among them being a 5-mmtpa LNG import terminal at Kamarajar port near Chennai, scheduled for commissioning in 2018-19,” said Sanjiv Singh, chairman, IndianOil.

The board also gave stage-I approval for expansion of the company’s Gujarat refinery from the existing 13.7 to 18 mmtpa of crude oil processing capacity at an estimated cost of Rs. 15,034 crores. The project to augment the refinery's capacity by 4.3 mmtpa will help meet the growing demand for products in the region.

The highlight of the project will be the proposed upfront execution of a new 15-Mmtpa atmospheric vacuum unit (AVU) with associated utilities to replace the 4 atmospheric units and 2 vacuum units installed at various stages of the refinery's phase-wise capacity expansion starting from 1965.

IndianOil has plans to raise the combined capacity of its 11 group refineries from 80.7 mmtpa currently to over 100 mmtpa in the next five years through brownfield expansions. The company is also pursuing a 60-mmtpa integrated refinery-cum-petrochemicals project on the west coast jointly with other oil marketing companies (OMCs, BPCL and HPCL). IndianOil is also working to convert its refineries to produce superior BS-VI quality fuel by April 2020.

“The new refinery configuration proposed will take into account the likely disruptions in the fuel supply/demand scenario in the future and will have built-in flexibility in its operations for strong integration with downstream petrochemical units,” added Singh.