Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent
MUMBAI, Sept. 12 -- India's state-owned GAIL (India) Ltd. plans to invest about $2.59 billion on pipeline construction during 2007-12 as part of its eleventh 5-year plan.
About $216-259 million will be spent on overseas investments, which include a proposed gas cracker plant in Iran.
"We are laying about 9,000 km of pipeline," as part of a $3.87-4.3 billion national gas grid project, said GAIL's Chairman S.P. Rao. The company has completed about 20% of that work, having already invested $1.19 billion on pipelines from Dahej on the Gujarat coast to Uran in Maharashtra and from Uran to Dabhol.
Work on remaining sectors will be accomplished when gas became available. Rao said production from the Oil & Natural Gas Corp.'s wells is declining, and private player Reliance Industries Ltd. would not begin producing gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin until 2008 or later. Rao said GAIL also is attempting to import LNG from Myanmar and Iran.
During the current fiscal year, GAIL will spend $711 million laying 1,500 km of pipelines. "The Iran-India pipeline has run into difficulties due to geopolitical problems, since it has to run through Afghanistan and Pakistan," Rao said. "But we have not given up on it yet. The [Indian] government is still pursuing it."