Kochi-Mangalore gas pipeline plan to move on

Ashraf Padanna, Gulf Today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch Kochi-Mangalore gas pipeline to evacuate natural gas stored in a Petronet LNG terminal in the port city of Kerala six years back on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Rs 45 billion terminal on Jan 14, 2014, but the laying of the pipeline got delayed due to stiff local resistance.

The project gained momentum after chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan assumed power in 2016 and assured Modi its expedition.

The Gas Authority of India (GAIL) is building the 1100-km pipeline network in Kerala and Karnataka at an estimated cost of Rs 60 billion.

The Indian Oil-Adani Gas consortium is investing another Rs 45 billion to provide last-mile connectivity to supply cheaper and safer fuel in the cities along its route.

It will supply environment-friendly and affordable fuel in the form of piped natural gas (PNG) to households and compressed natural gas (CNG) to vehicles.

It will also supply natural gas to commercial and industrial units across the districts. Consumption of cleaner fuel will help in improving air quality by curbing air pollution.

A press release from the prime minister’s office said the event marks an important milestone towards the creation of ‘one nation one gas grid’.

Governors and chief ministers of Karnataka and Kerala, Yeddirurappa and Vijayan, and federal oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan will join the video conferencing event.

The 450-km long pipeline in the first phase has a transportation capacity of 12 million metric standard cubic metres per day.

It will carry natural gas from the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification terminal to the port city of Mangalore in southern Karnataka.

The total cost of the project was about Rs 30 billion and its construction created over 1.2 worker-days of employment. “Laying of the pipeline was an engineering challenge as the route necessitated it to cross water bodies at more than 100 locations,” it said.

“This was done through a special technique called horizontal directional drilling method.”

The state-run company launched its work in 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs 29.15 billion to be completed in 2014. The opposition led to a cost overrun to Rs 57.50 billion.

The pipeline and the national highway, also delayed by protests, were the two projects that Modi asked Vijayan to expedite during their first meeting.

Land acquisition for the highway has also gained momentum now, after four years since, and the actual work on major stretches is expected to start soon.

The pipeline is charged up to Kannur now and is live up to Koottanand in Palakkad district, the main junction from where the line bifurcates to Mangalore and Coimbatore. The first phase was commissioned in August 2013 in the Kochi metropolitan area with industrial and domestic supplies from February 2016.

It now supplies 3.8 million cubic metres of gas every day to industrial and residential customers in Kochi. Mangalore has a potential of 2.5 million cubic metres per day.

Ninety per cent of the Petronet’s Kochi LNG terminal’s capacity of five million tonnes annually has been idling.

IndianOil Adani can now connect homes in seven districts in Kerala - Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, Kasargod and Wayanad, besides Mangalore.

From Coimbatore, it will pass through Tamil Nadu state and reach the Karnataka capital of Bangalore. RasGas has a 25-year supply contract with the Petronet for its projects in Kochi and Dahej, Gujarat.

It delivered its first cargo here in August and the second in November 2013. It was contracted in 1999 for 7.5mn metric tonnes of LNG annually.

Adani Gas plans to connect 41,000 households in Kochi alone while the industrially laggard state lacks bulk users along the current route.

Kerala plans to increase production at the NTPC power plant in Kayamkulam replacing its naphtha feedstock with the cheaper alternative and building a new LNG-fired plant.

The Petronet’s stakeholders also include Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC).

Vijayan’s predecessor Oommen Chandy had said the land acquisition was a major hurdle for the gas pipeline, road and power highway confronting the state’s development.

The state has made considerable progress on this since Vijayan replaced him by suppressing all opposition.