Mangaluru : Sri Nigam B. Vasani, President of Kanara Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Mangalore along with Sri Rammohan Pai Maroor, Vice-President and Sri N.Yathiraj Shetty, Director of KCCI met Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt. of India during his visit to Mangalore on Sunday,April 5.
A memorandum was submitted the Hon’ble Union Government to arrange LNG Supply to Karntaka through NMPT coastal waters.
The memorandum stating that, the proposal of setting up of LNG Terminal at NMPT has been long pending for over a decade. Karnataka has no energy resources of its own and hence requires special attention. It is requested that coal based gas projects may be expedited in Chattisgarh, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa so that the gas requirement of those regions are made effectively from coal bed reducing dependence on LNG/LPG. Natural Gas is very expensive in West Asia but very cheap in USA and Canada. This imbalance has to be addressed to achieve reasonable costing of LNG. There is ready demand for over 5 million metric tonnes of LNG in vicinity for Karnataka, rather 2.5 million tonnes in D.K. and Udipi Districts alone.
Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) project be sanctioned for Mangalore Port to handle LNG.
LNG import required for the next 25 years after are technical considerations. The economic justification is already established.
‘Methane Rich’LNG should be encouraged getting about 80% Methane (by weight). Methane can be used as feed stock for fertilizers and clean power, with CNG for vehicle use subsequently. Imported Rich LNG also provides 20% LPG (by weight).