India's Third LNG Terminal Commissioning Delay

India's third terminal to import LNG will miss by a year the target to commission its first phase in March because of delays in starting dredging to desilt the ship channel, a senior executive at its owner said.

Due to delays in getting government clearances and a shortage of equipment, the dredging contractor, Gammon India Ltd., had to postpone its work, the executive at Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt. Ltd. told Dow Jones Newswires, asking not to be identified.

The terminal to handle 5.0 million metric tons of LNG a year was initially planned by Enron Corp. to import LNG for a power plant it was setting up in the western state of Maharashtra. It was also planning to lease out excess capacity. After the U.S. company's collapse, Ratnagiri Gas & Power took over the projects in 2005.

The delay in opening the terminal isn't expected to have any major impact on gas supplies as the local market is well fed with Reliance Industries Ltd. increasing output at its gas field in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the east coast. Ratnagiri Gas & Power also gets gas from Reliance to run its 2,150-megawatt power plant.

Also, Petronet LNG Ltd., India's largest LNG importer, has raised capacity at its Dahej terminal in the west coast to 11.5 MMTPA from 6.5 MMTPA.