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India-based liquefied natural gas firm Petronet LNG Ltd. is to press ahead with plans to double the capacity of its proposed LNG terminal at Puthuvypu, off Kochi to 5 million tonnes. The news comes only days after it was revealed that Cochin Port Trust has invited five shortlisted companies to submit business models to build a bunker terminal at the same port.

Petronet LNG already has an agreement in place with Exxon Mobil Australia for the supply of approximately 1.5 million tonnes per annum of Exxon Mobil's share of LNG from the Gorgon LNG Project over a 20-year period. LNG cargoes will be delivered to the new Kochi LNG terminal. The agreement, signed in August 2009, was the first long-term sale of LNG from Australia to India.

According to A.K. Balyan, managing director and chief operating officer of Petronet, further LNG agreements are expected to be reached before the new terminal is commissioned in March 2012.

Petronets' board of directors is reported to have met in Kochi on Sunday, 21st November, to take the decision to increase its investment in the project to Rs4,000 crore.

Petronet is a consortium promoted by Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL). Each company has a 12.5 percent equity share totaling 50 percent. In addition, GDF International (GDFI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Gaz de France, holds 10% and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) holds 5.2 percent of the equity. The balance of the equity, 34.8 percent, is held by the public.

GAIL is due to immediately begin work laying a gas pipeline from Kochi to Mangalore. Work would also begin on an undersea gas pipeline to the NTPC Kayamkulam plant.

The laying of the pipelines is scheduled to be completed within 18 months to coincide with the commissioning of the LNG terminal.