Regional LNG: Vessel crashes into jetty at Indian LNG terminal: Report
Monday, September 19 2005 - 09:57 AM WIB
India's biggest gas transporter GAIL (India) Ltd. said the accident at Dahej, India's busiest LNG terminal, occurred on Saturday.
"We will know by tomorrow whether ships can berth at the terminal or not," P. Dasgupta, managing director of Petronet LNG , which operates the terminal, told Reuters.
He said the company had 223 million cubic metres of gas in its storage tanks, but did not give details.
This amounts to about two weeks of regular supply at the rate of 17 million cubic metres a day, government officials said.
Plans were afoot to divert cargo to the country's only other LNG terminal, in Hazira, also in the western state of Gujarat, GAIL said in a statement late on Sunday.
"Tug boats of LNG carrier Disha hit the Dolphin Piles of the jetty. The LNG ship was casting off after unloading the cargo," according to a GAIL statement.
Shell India, which inaugurated its LNG terminal this year, said it was willing to help as it had spare capacity.
"They called us. We said we will be happy to help out, but it is still at a very early stage," said Deepak Mukarji, head of external affairs at Shell India.
Petronet LNG had approached foreign firms to assess the damage and repair the terminal, GAIL said.
GAIL said it had requested domestic gas producers to step up supply to help tide over a shortfall. The world is facing a shortage of LNG supplies.
Petronet LNG started importing super-cooled gas from Qatar last year and has contracted supplies of 5 million tonnes in the fiscal year to March 2006.
In July, the company said it was looking for spot cargoes for additional imports of 1-1.25 million tonnes of LNG during the fiscal year.
The Hazira terminal of Royal Dutch/Shell has been designed to import 5 million tonnes a year. It is offering flexible short-term contracts to its customers. (*)