India’s HPCL to launch commercial ops at Chhara LNG terminal

“HPCL has brought its first cargo, and the terminal will start the commercial operations shortly,” the unit of state-owned ONGC said on Monday.

LNG Prime reported on January 9, citing shipping data, that the delayed Chhara LNG terminal received the commissioning cargo onboard the 2007-built LNG carrier Maran Gas Coronis, owned by a joint venture of Greece’s Maran Gas and Qatar’s Nakila

Maran Gas Coronis previously loaded the shipment at the Petronas-operated giant Bintulu LNG complex in Sarawak, Malaysia, its AIS data provided by VesselsValue showed.

HPCL said on Monday that Maran Gas Coronis berthed on January 6 and the cargo discharge into the onshore LNG tanks was completed on January 12.

According to HPCL, the LNG terminal has been set up at an investment of 47.5 billion Indian rupees ($549 million) at Chhara Port in Gir-Somnath District in Gujarat.

The LNG terminal features a 1.2 km long jetty capable of receiving carriers with a capacity of 80,000 cbm to 266,000 cbm, and two LNG storage tanks each with a capacity of 200,000 cbm,

It also has facilities for truck loading, regasification, and supply of regasified LNG to the gas grid.

HPSCL said its unit HPCL LNG would operate the terminal on a “tolling” model and is open to third-party users, through long-term capacity booking contracts and/or through master regasification agreement for spot cargoes.

The Chhara LNG terminal is India’s eighth LNG import facility.

At the moment, India imports LNG via seven facilities with a combined capacity of about 47.7 million tonnes per year.

These include Petronet LNG’s Dahej and Kochi terminals, Shell’s Hazira terminal, and the Dabhol LNG, Ennore LNG, Mundra LNG, and Dhamra LNG terminal.