Gail (India) is planning to invest Rs.18,000 crore in eight pipeline projects across the country in the next few years.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has approved GAIL's proposal to invite expressions of interest for five new natural gas pipelines in the country. These pipelines will be build on common carrier principle and 33 per cent of the planned capacity will be offered to third parties. The pipelines are:

• Dadri-Bawana-Nangal
• Chainsa-Gurgaon-Jhajjhar-Hissar
• Jagdishpur-Haldia
• Dabhol-Bangalore
• Kochi-Kanjikkod-Bangalore-Mangalore.

The new projects will enhance Gail's gas transportation capacity to 280 mmscmd from the current 140 mmscmd.

In addition to these projects, Gail will be laying three pipelines within the existing right of use (ROU) to augment the capacities of Dahej-Vijaipur pipeline (610 km), Vijaipur-Dadri pipeline (505 km) and Vijaipur-Auraiya-Jagdishpur pipeline (571 km). The carrying capacity of these three pipelines will be 74 mmscmd. The total length of these pipelines along with the three capacity augmentation lines will be around 5,000 km and will be built by Gail on ownership basis. They are expected to be completed in two phases within 3 to 4 years.

GAIL has also signed an MoU with Reliance Industries and ONGC for co-operation in the gas sector, including transportation of natural gas from the various gas sources of RIL and ONGC. GAIL and Shell India have agreed to sharing of GAIL's pipeline interconnectivity with Hazira terminal for gas supplies in the country. Besides, GAIL is in talks with Algeria for sourcing LNG.

Also See:

RIL signs MoU with GAIL for gas supply (16-Mar-07)