EAC defers clearance of Petronet's LNG project

The Expert Appraisal Committee under the Ministry of Environment and Forests has deferred clearance of land-based Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at Gangavaram Port in Andhra Pradesh, being developed by Petronet LNG Limited, for want of compliance reports.

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Citing pollution issues that were raised during public hearing on the project, the EAC has advised the company to obtain report on compliance status of EC/Consent conditions from the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board and regional office of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Bengaluru.

Deferring the project proposal, the committee said it will consider it after the issues are addressed. Petronet LNG Limited is jointly promoted by BPCL, GAIL, IOCL and ONGC, and it owns and operates first LNG Regasification Terminal in India with the capacity of 10 MMTPA at Dahej.

It has approached the MoEF for environmental clearance (EC) for setting up 10 million tonnes per annum LNG import, storage and re-gasification facilities at Gangavaram Port. "Since pollution problems from Gangavaram Port were raised during public hearing, committee suggested to obtain report on compliance status of EC/Consent conditions of Gangavaram Port from Port, APCB and RO, MoEF, Bangalore.

"In view of the foregoing observations, the committee recommend to defer the proposal. The proposal shall be reconsidered after the above observations are addressed and submitted," the EAC said in its observation. When contacted, Rajender Singh, Director (technical), Petronet, said they have replied to many issues raised by the Ministry before, and since it is an ongoing process, it may not delay the project schedule.

"Currently we are in the process of tendering for various works. And negotiations are going on. I believe we are on schedule," Singh told PTI.

A Petronet spokesperson said they intend to develop the terminal initially with 5 MTPA capacity involving Rs 4,500 crore investment and later expand it to 10 MTPA. A top official of the company had earlier indicated that the project would be ready to commence operations by 2016.

In Phase-I, the raw material will be imported and transported to the customers directly, and in Phase-II, it will be regasified and transported to customers through pipelines.

The project was considered by EAC in its meeting held in April 2012 and finalised terms of reference (ToR), including conduct of public hearing. The public hearing was conducted on January 3 this year near the Gangavaram Port entrance. Major issues raised during the public hearing are related to pollution due to Gangavaram Port and employment, the EAC said.

Gangavaram Port Ltd is incorporated as special purpose company by equity partnership of the Andhra Pradesh government and a port developer, to implement the project on Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.