Ennore LPG terminal on stream
New Delhi   25-Jul-2012

Liquefied petroleum gas bottling plants of oil marketing companies in several parts of the southern region can look forward to improved and timely availability of the product with a 1.2 million tonne LPG terminal near Chennai going on stream.

A project of IndianOil Petronas Pvt. Ltd. (IPPL), a joint venture of IndianOil and the Malaysian government-owned Petronas, the terminal would be a crucial facility to help maintain cylinder supplies to millions of households and commercial establishments in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

“Our role would be safekeeping, blending and terminalling facilities for the product ordered by the oil companies,” IPPL Chief Executive Officer Mrinal Roy said, adding that the terminal received the first parcel of LPG when a very large gas carrier called at Ennore port recently.

The vessel brought a consignment of 44,000 tonnes ordered by IndianOil from Qatar. While a part of the propane and butane was meant for the terminal in Ennore, the rest was for Haldia, he said. “On receiving the consignment, we purged the pipelines and tanks with vapour and then started cooling them to receive the products which come and get stored under refrigerated conditions,” S. Chandrababu, DGM-Project (I/C) of IPPL, said recently.

Although the terminal was ready for commissioning by March, it could not be operated as a clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment was awaited. On getting the CRZ (coastal regulation zone) clearance, which was required for a portion of pipelines connecting the jetty at the port and the terminal, IPPL got the consent to operate from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.

The Rs.500-crore terminal would be significant for Tamil Nadu whose bulk LPG requirement is around 1.2 million tonnes annually, whereas the refineries of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltdproduce only 0.4 million tonnes of the fuel. Apart from providing services to the oil companies, IPPL, according to Mr. Roy, would source LPG for supplying to industrial units and retailing cylinders to commercial establishments. The company would also be setting up LPG dispensing stations for automobilesin Tamil Nadu.

“Work is in progress on our Propel brand ALDS in Tambaram and Anna Salai in Chennai. We are hopeful of commissioning the Tambaram facility by August 15,” he said, adding that the company would be establishing such facilities in Kancheepuram, Nagercoil and Kanyakumari. Besides Tamil Nadu, it was in the process of setting up more ALDS in Karnataka. On the industrial consumers, he said the company would supply bulk LPG to car manufacturers and furnaces. It also proposed to get into retailing of 450 kg cylinders to commercial establishments.