State-backed ONGC has roped in Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) to get land, environment, socio-economic and other key clearances for its ambitious Rs 10,000-crore gas processing plant in Palghar, Maharashtra, a source close to the development said.
IL&FS, however, declined to confirm this tie-up.
In May last year, the upstream oil company had announced plans to set up an integrated gas processing plant having a processing capacity of 10 million metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscmd) and a combined cycle power plant of more than 2000 MW capacity and a value-added product (VAP) plant.
The lean gas from the gas processing plant after extraction of the VAPs like LPG, naphtha and C2C3 is proposed to be utilised for generation of power.
ONGC has already identified a 760-hectare land spread across two villages – Kelva-Mahim and Pokrale in Palghar district. While around more than 300 hectares of this land belong to the state government, the remaining part will have to be procured from private owners, the source said.
Apparently, the Maharashtra government is keen to push forward this project as it is likely to create large employment opportunities in the Palghar region. The state government has set up a high-powered committee to expedite the land acquisition and other processes for this project.
IL&FS will likely help ONGC to prepare various studies about environmental and socio-economic impact, which are required for getting government clearances. Earlier, the company was advised by the Ministry of Environment and Forest to approach the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Ministry of Power for necessary clearances as the country is witnessing a worse case scenario as far as gas availability is concerned.
The source stressed that the new project has been assured 10 mmscmd of gas supply from the company’s Bassein and Satellite field and other adjacent fields. The project is now on the fast track, and is likely to give a lot of leverage to ONGC.
ONGC currently has two gas processing plants at Hazira in Gujarat and Uran near Mumbai. While the gas processing Hazira plant near Surat processes only gas, the Uran plant can handle both gas and oil. The key reason for coming up with a third processing plant is that ONGC does not have any further scope of expansion at the existing plants.
Both Uran and Hazira hardly have any land for further expansion.
ONGC also plans to link all its three gas processing centres in future through a network of sub-sea pipelines, which is likely to bring more flexibility and efficiency to its operations, the source said without providing further details.
The financial closure for the project is yet to be achieved and is likely to come at a much latter stage. There is no definite time-frame for the project commencement as yet, the source said.
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