Jaipur, Sept 10: Petroleum and Natural Gas minister Ram Naik today said that an agreement with Qatar had been finalised for supply of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from next year. The 95 per cent work of construction of regasification terminal being set up by Petronet LNG at Dahej in Gujarat had already been completed from where LNG imported from Qatar will be available by January next year, Naik said while commissioning Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline Phase-II here.

Allaying fears of industry that LNG would be costly, Naik said it would provide cheap fuel greatly benefitting industrial units. He said with commissioning of Phase-II of LPG pipeline through interconnection of Kandla-Samakhiali sector with the main LPG pipeline and commissioning of Jaipur booster station, The capacity to transport LPG had been enhanced to 2.5 million tonnes per annum from earlier 1.7 MMTPA benefiting Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

This would also enable LPG imported at Kandla to be transported through this pipeline, he said. Referring to exploration activities, Naik said 70 blocks had already been awarded under new exploration licencing policy (NELP) and 24 more blocks had been offered under fourth round of NELP for which bids will be received by 30th of this month.

Bureau Report