Petronet ties up with Gaz de France

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 4. Petronet LNG along with its promoters today signed the shareholders agreement with Gaz de France, a French national gas company which is the largest liquid natural gas (LNG) supplier in Europe.

The French company will now have 10 per cent equity stake besides 12.5 per cent equity stake each held by the four promoters in the Petronet LNG.

The agreement was signed by the chief executive officer and managing director of Petronet LNG, Mr. Suresh Mathur, and Mr. Deyirmandjian of Gaz de France, as well as directors of the Indian Oil Corporation, Gas Authority of India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation. The joint venture agreement between the four promoters was also signed last week. With the signing of the agreement today, PLL has firmed up 60 per cent of its equity. A company release says another 15 per cent equity is expected to be tied up shortly with the signing of the shareholders' agreement with Rasgas, Qatar - 10 per cent - and the Gujarat Government - 5 per cent - where the discussions are in an advanced stage.

The company has already awarded lumpsum turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contract for construction of Dahej LNG terminal of five million tonnes annual capacity in Gujarat and the shipping time charter contract for transport of LNG from Qatar to Dahej in Gujarat. The company is also considering enhancing the capacity of Dahej LNG terminal from five to ten million tonnes annually by installing one additional storage tank and gasification facilities. All pre-project activities for Kochi Terminal have been completed and the company is expected to release invitation for pre-qualification of EPC consortium.

With the execution of these contracts, Petronet has set the stage for receiving 20 million standard cubic metres a day of natural gas by December 2003 which will be marketed in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab through the HBJ pipeline network.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : FII investments up 44 p.c. in capital markets
Next     : GIC Housing to offer consumer loans