The Hindu Business Line : Hindujas sign pact with IOC for Ennore project

THE Hinduja group has signed an MoU with Indian Oil Corporation for setting up a power project that could use IOC's LNG at Ennore, the IOC's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr M.S. Ramachandran, told presspersons here on Saturday.

IOC is planning to set up a 2.5 million-tonne liquefied natural gas project at Ennore, north of Chennai.

Mr Ramachandran said that IOC was talking to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to see if the latter could set up a power plant that could offtake at least 1 million tonne of LNG.

Asked if there was a tie-up with the Hindujas, Mr Ramachandran confirmed an MoU between IOC and the Hindujas.

"We are talking to the TNEB to see if they can provide us an anchor load. If Hindujas want to put up a power project, we are prepared to give them gas," he said.

Mr Ramachandran was here to inaugurate the `T junction' of the Rs 412-crore Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai pipeline.

The Hindujas have their roots in Iran. They are also implementing a few infrastructure projects in that country. IOC is also talking to the Iranians for supply of LNG. A team from IOC is in Iran now, submitting a master plan to National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

IOC is also to develop the South Pars gas block in Iran, jointly with an Iranian company called Petropars.

He noted that all the gas discovered in the Krishna-Godavari-basin had been booked for the Dadri power project and for meeting the industrial demand in Andhra Pradesh.

The proposed LNG project at Kochi would cater to the demand in the Kerala-Karnataka region. An LNG project at Ennore would greatly benefit Tamil Nadu, he said.

Earlier, inaugurating the T-junction , Mr Ramachandran said that the project would be completed by July. The T-junction is where the pipeline forks into two branches, one going towards Madurai and the other towards Sankari near Erode.

When completed, the 683-km pipeline would carry petrol, diesel and kerosene from the CPCL refinery in Chennai to the hinterlands of Tamil Nadu.

The pipeline, which would work round-the-clock all through the year, will carry each hour as much petro products as 25 tankers would, officials said.

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