Gail Starts Major Gas Pipe Projects in East India

India’s largest natural gas infrastructure firm Gail has started work on two major gas pipelines in east India, it said December 18.

Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the laying of Gail’s 12-inch natural gas spurline to Bhubneshwar, Cuttak and Pradip as well as 36-inch gas mainline from Dhamra to Angul. The foundation stone was laid by Pradhan at Haripur in the Jajpur district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha.

Pradhan said that the two pipeline projects combined will be 600-km in length and will cover 13 districts of Odisha. The Dhamra to Angul pipeline, part of the ambitious 2,655-km long Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) project, will bring gas from the proposed Dhamra LNG terminal which will received LNG from Australia and Qatar.

Due to lack of pipelines and LNG import terminals, east India has very low gas usage. The current government has stated that it will be aggressively building infrastructure in eastern Indian states so that usage of cleaner fuels like natural gas get a boost.

The ambitious JHBDPL project, also known as the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project will pass through the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. In September 2016, India’s cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) approved capital grant of rupees 51.76bn ($0.77bn), which is 40% of the total cost of the project, over five years. The total cost of the JHBDPL gas pipeline is estimated to be roughly rupees 130bn. On the same day Gail signed term sheets with various industrial consumers in Odisha for supply of natural gas.