Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 28 2022

AsiaElec GAS GENERATION AsiaElec

India to unveil first

floating LNG terminal

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

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