Royal Dutch/Shell, world's third largest oil and gas firm, on Thursday said its $600-mn Hazira liquefied natural gas import terminal in Gujarat was fully operational and the company had no plans to sell it off.
"Hazira is not shutting down. It is operational... the plant is up and running," the company's India director for gas and power Marc den Hartog told PTI in New Delhi.
He said the 2.5 million tonnes Hazira LNG import and regasification terminal and port were fully operational. "The LNG terminal is and remains a viable investment for Shell and while we are open to welcoming equity participation based on value addition, we are not interested in a sell out."
"Shell is a long term investor... we are here to stay. We are not selling-off Hazira," he said, adding the company was open to taking more equity partners but Hazira would remain Shell-owned and operated project.
Shell suspends Hazira operations
Total of France had last year picked 26 per cent stake in the Hazira terminal. The rest is with Shell Hazira Gas Pvt Ltd.
Shell, which began operating India's second LNG terminal in April 2005, has till now imported only three cargoes of LNG, as it was unable to find customers willing to pay market price of $8-9 per million British thermal unit.
The market price was roughly double the cost at which Petronet LNG Ltd, India's largest LNG importer, was selling regasified LNG from its Dahej terminal in Gujarat.
"Finding customers at market price is a problem even though some industries in the North are paying $13-14 per mBtu for naphtha," Hartog said.
Shell launched the Hazira terminal in April 2005 as a merchant terminal - implying an ability to undertake short-term as well as long supply contracts from multiple supply points as against a dedicated terminal used by defined supply points for identified customers.
Hartog said Hazira had the capacity and was ready to make incremental gas supplies available at commercially viable terms to gas users.
"Between Shell and Total, we can source LNG at competitive market price," he said, adding many industries in India continue to burn naphtha despite cheaper LNG being available.
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