State-owned gas transmission company Gas Authority of India ltd (GAIl) will be the lead partner in the Rs 2,500 crore upstream coal gasification project in Talcher in Odisha and would be inking the pact with two other major PSUs next month to initiate it.
GAIl Chairman BC Tripathi on Thursday said while interacting with media persons on the occasion of the announcement of the company's Q1 results for FY14. He added that the company would be the lead partner in the project and a tripartite agreement would be signed between it, Coal India ltd (CIl) and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) in August for starting the project.
Under this, CIl would supply washed coal to GAIl which will produce gas from it and this gas would be used in a downstream plant which is to be set up by RCF in Talcher, Odisha.
According to sources, under the project the gas produced would not just fire the fertiliser plant but also a captive power plant. This captive power plant would generate surplus electricity which would be sold to the grid.
Meanwhile GAIl's turnover witnessed a 16 per cent jump to Rs 12,856 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal over Rs 11,089 crore in the corresponding period.
Its net profit though reported a 29 per cent drop as it transported less gas while its lPG margins shrunk owing “zero output” from Reliance Industries' KG-D6 gas fields.
Net profit in the April-June quarter at Rs 808.17 crore was 28.7 per cent lower than Rs 1,133.78 crore in the same period a year ago, Tripathi informed.
“Main reason for decline in the net profit is lower gas transmission volumes, fall in trading volumes and lPG segment posting loss,” he said.
At the same time the company's outgo on fuel subsidy remained unchanged at Rs 700 crore, which left its impact on the finances, the Chairman added.
GAIl, Tripathi said, sourced seven shiploads or cargoes of liquefied natural gas (lNG) during the quarter and is targetting 34 cargoes in all during the full fiscal.
Its recently commissioned Dabhol lNG import facility in Maharashtra has been shut because the port cannot handle ships during monsoon in absence of a breakwater that protects vessels from hitting the jetty. 13 cargoes of lNG are to be imported at Dabhol from October when port operations resume, he said.