Page 7 - AsianOil Week 28 2022

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India prepares to

launch first FSRU

PROJECTS & INDIA is expected to launch its first floating
COMPANIES storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for the
import of LNG in the second half of the year.
The facility, which will be sited at the port of
Jaigarh, around 170 km south of Mumbai, will
help India to add up to 11mn tonnes per year
(tpy) of regasification capacity, according to the
International Gas Union (IGU).
“In India, two floating storage and regasifi-
cation unit-based terminals at Jaigarh and Jafra-
bad are currently under development and are
expected to start operations in 2022, after pan-
demic and weather-related delays,” the IGU said
in its recent World LNG 2022 report.
Over the past decade, India has shown
“exceptionally strong growth”, the same report
said. This has led to an overall increase in the
country’s natural gas import capacity by more
than 160%.
LNG imports will prove all the more impor-
tant in the years ahead, with India this week fore-
cast by the United Nations to become the world’s
most populous country by the end of 2023, with
a population in excess of 1.4bn people.
Currently, however, there are just six func-
tioning LNG import terminals across the
country.
No new capacity was added in 2021, although
this was in large part owing to lockdowns and
limits on the movement of people related to the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
As such, India was still limited to its current
regasification capacity of 39.5mn tpy, a figure
unchanged from the end of 2020. At the end of
April 2022, a further 30mn tpy of capacity was
A roadmap with reported to be under construction, according to from the port at Jaigarh along a 56-km gas pipe-
line connected to India’s national grid.
the IGU.
H-Energy also The IGU added that India’s first FSRU-based The facility at the port will also have the
included the joint terminals, which were initially due to be com- capacity to reload other LNG tankers to permit
missioned in early 2021, were now likely to start transport to other Indian – or possibly overseas
development of up in the second half of 2022. – terminals.
Vessel-to-LNG truck capability is also under-
Progress towards start-up of the first FSRU,
the downstream which will be operated by H-Energy, is now stood to be an add-on currently being negotiated
being seen, with arrival in India of the Hoegh at the site.
small-scale LNG Giant FSRU in March. With a storage capacity of The second FSRU will be located in at Jafra-
market. up to 170,000 cubic metres of LNG, the unit has bad, in India’s north-western state of Gujarat,
and will have a slightly smaller capacity. It was
a regasification capacity of 6mn tpy.
Speaking when the agreement was initially projected to have been operational over
announced prior to the unit shipping, the pres- two years ago.
ident and CEO of Hoegh, Sveinung Stohle, said Having finally overcome pandemic-re-
that a roadmap with H-Energy also included the lated delays in addition to direct hits from two
joint development of the downstream small- cyclones in the past year, the site has now been
scale LNG market in the region. upgraded to function as an all-weather facility.
Stohle went on to add that with the potential When operational, the Jafrabad site, oper-
for growth in India over the next few years, the ated by domestic energy firm Swan Energy, will
shipping of further FSRUs when the Indian mar- add 5mn tpy of LNG regasification capacity. The
ket is ready was a possibility. FSRU will be a South Korean-built Vasant 1 unit
When processed, regasified LNG will be sent with a capacity of 180,000 cubic metres.™

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