Indian Oil Corporation to Fund New LNG Terminal as Ennore Develops Range of Handling Capacity

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Talks are taking place between India's state-controlled Ennore Port and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (BSE:530965) (IOC) (Mumbai) regarding the construction of an $860 million LNG import terminal. Ennore Port is sited on the Coromandel Coast, 24 kilometers north of Chennai.

The chairman and managing director of Ennore Port, S. Velumani, said that the IOC board has approved the $860 million investment, which would have berth, regasification and storage facilities. IOC will handle the total project investment, and Ennore Port will facilitate the development of the terminal, he said.

Currently, IOC is seeking environment clearances from the authorities and is working on the commercial profile of the terminal.

Concurrent with this project development, Ennore Port signed a preliminary agreement with the ministry of shipping to increase its target of cargo-handling capacity to 61.5 million tons by 2014-15. The increase from the current 15 million tons of annual capacity to 61.5 million tons would be achieved by developing new terminals through public-private partnerships in which private companies would be the investors and Ennore Port would be the facilitator, said Velumani.

The port will be working on four major projects: the development of a $50 million liquids terminal, a $76 million common-use coal terminal, and an iron ore terminal for which the development investment will be made in phases, with $72 million invested in the first phase. This will be followed by the second phase, when the traffic demand for iron ore exports picks up, Velumani said.

In addition to continuing to develop the exporting of automobiles produced by international companies, the port company will also invest $280 million in the construction of a container terminal with an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons.

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