Dit zou mogelijk meer import van fertilizers kunnen betekenen voor India.
Published date: 24 September 2020
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A fire at state-owned ONGC's Hazira gas-processing plant in Gujarat, western India, has been extinguished and the operator is making efforts to resume normal operations soon.
But it is unclear how quickly ONGC will be able to resume full operations as the fire has damaged the plant's gas and LPG processing facilities. The fire started early this morning at the ONGC-operated Uran-Mumbai gas pipeline, before spreading to ONGC's gas facility at Hazira.
Disruptions to gas and LPG supplies could lead to higher imports of these fuels, with imported supplies typically accounting for over 50pc of the country's consumption. LNG imports rose to 2.97bn m³ of equivalent pipeline gas (2.3mn t) last month, flat from July but up from 2.82bn m³ a year earlier, preliminary figures from the oil ministry show.
The Hazira plant is India's largest gas-processing facility and a critical supplier of the fuel to domestic industries, including fertilizer firms, which receive gas from the Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) trunkline. The HBJ trunkline is the country's largest and runs from Hazira in the west to Jagdishpur in northern India. It has a capacity to process 47mn m³/d of gas and an additional 5.6mn m³/d train on standby. It can also process around 8,000 m³/d of condensate to produce LPG, naphtha, jet fuel, diesel and propane.
State-controlled gas distributor Gail has enough stocks in the HBJ pipeline to maintain supplies for some time, but said it is rationing gas supplies to customers because it is unclear when the Hazira plant will resume full operations.
Some firms are seeking gas supplies from state-controlled Gujarat State Petroleum, which operates the 5mn t/yr Mundra LNG terminal in Gujarat, given the production halt at the Hazira plant and outage at the Uran-Mumbai pipeline. The western state of Gujarat has three LNG import terminals, which include the 17.5mn t/yr Dahej receiving terminal. The three terminals have a combined capacity of 27.5mn t/yr and are currently operating below full capacity.
There is no impact to operations at the 5mn t/yr Hazira terminal, operator Shell said. But prompt LNG deliveries to Hazira may be delayed or even diverted to Gujarat's other LNG import terminals, market participants said. But whether the disruption will translate into increased LNG demand is unclear as this depends on how long the plant and pipeline remain off line.
LNG requirements from India, particularly for deliveries in November, have recently started to increase as demand from the industrial and fertilizer sectors has edged up. State-owned IOC and Petronet each bought a November cargo recently, while state-controlled Bharat Petroleum closed a tender yesterday to buy two second-half November cargoes. Private-sector conglomerate Reliance Industries bought a November cargo through a two-cargo tender in August.
By S Dinakar and Camille Klass