New 400km LPG gas pipeline linking Ennore to Madurai gets green light

Chennai:

Liquefied petroleum gas consumers in southern parts of Tamil Nadu who have to wait for days to get a refill has something to cheer about as Indian Oil Corporation is set to lay a gas pipeline connecting Madurai and Trichy with the 600,000 tonnes per annum capacity LPG Import-Export terminal of Indian Oil-Petronas Ltd (IPPL) in Ennore.

M Nene, chairman of IPPL, a joint venture between Indian Oil and Petronas of Malaysia, told reporters after inaugurating the Rs 546 crore IPPL terminal here on Tuesday that the pipeline got the required sanctions and work will soon be started to lay the 400 km pipeline.

Interestingly, the laying of pipeline will boost the LPG requirements of Tamil Nadu, which accounts for staggering 1.36 crore LPG connections. With a combined bottling capacity of 400,000 tonnes, the state was facing a huge deficit of 800,000 tonnes of the product.

The shortfall of 0.8 million tonnes was met by moving LPG from Mangalore by road over difficult hill terrain. With the commencement of the terminal at Ennore, not only the LPG availability has gone up significantly but it has also eliminated LPG transportation by bullet trucks leading to decongestion and enhanced safety of highways.

At full capacity of 1200,000 tonnes per annum, the terminal will also be able to cater to the bulk LPG requirements of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in addition to Tamil Nadu. It is also the only source of propane in south India for various industries like automobiles, glass etc.

Nene said that oil marketing companies are in the process of releasing 55 million new connections by 2015 in a bid to help government achieve domestic LPG penetration of 75 per cent in India. Currently, the combined consumer strength stands at 144 million, he added. Nene said that India is the fourth largest LPG market in the world after US, China and Japan with the current consumption of 15 million tonnes per annum.

He said Ennore is emerging as a highly strategic location for petroleum business with construction work on a five million tonnes pen annum LNG terminal here. He said the work is likely to be completed in the next four years.

He said the government’s initiative in capping subsidized LPG cylinders for households from September 2012 has resulted in major churning of the LPG marketing as it has not only brought down illegal diversion of the product but also resulted in significant upswing in autogas.