Reliance keen to take over Dabhol plant

Reliance Industries Ltd, India's largest private firm, is keen to take over the Dabhol power plant to fulfill its long planned ambition of having an LNG import facility on the west coast, a company official said.

The government is presently trying to revive the 2,184 MW Dabhol power plant and the adjacent LNG terminal through NTPC and GAIL.

But if attempts to source fuel for the power plant on a long-term basis fail, it may consider either hiving-off the LNG terminal and selling it to a company capable of sourcing fuel or selling off the entire plant itself.

An RIL official said his company would be keen to take over the LNG facility and even the power plant if offered by the government.

"We had originally planned to construct a liquefied natural gas import facility at Jamnagar in Gujarat. But after BP Plc of UK walked out of the project and our company finding huge gas reserves in Krishna Godavari basin off east coast, the plans were put on hold," he said.

The Dabhol terminal would offer an opportunity to balance the gas source on the east coast.

"We plan to pipe gas from KG-D6 field to Maharashtra and Gujarat through Kakinada-Baruch pipeline and to south through Kakinada-Chennai-Coimbatore- Bangalore line. It will also be taken to eastern India through the Kakinada-Haldia pipeline. But we need imported fuel to balance the indigenous source," the official said.

Reliance feels its exploration blocks in Yemen and Oman can yield gas, which would be converted into LNG and shipped to Dabhol. Similarly, its partner Chevron can also bring LNG from its project in Australia. 

The official said indigenous production of natural gas should be balanced with imported fuel to arrive at the right mix and price.

"We cannot build an LNG terminal at Jamnagar as the port will have no capacity to handle LNG carriers after our new refinery comes up," he said.

Reliance Petroleum Ltd, a subsidiary of RIL, is building a 29 million tonnes per annum refinery adjacent to the existing 33 mtpa refinery at Jamnagar. All the crude required for the two refineries would be imported.

The official said Reliance was in talks with state-run GAIL (India) Ltd for connecting the Kakinada-Haldia pipeline to Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh. GAIL's HVJ pipeline runs from Hazira to Vijaipur to Jagdishpur.