Asia/Pacific News
Land Approved for Indian LNG Bunker Storage Facilities
India’s Kolkata Port Trust has set aside 10 acres of land at the Haldia Dock Complex for 30 years in order to enable the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facilities as part of the national government's larger push toward the use of LNG bunkers in inland barges, LNG World News reports.
As Ship & Bunker previously reported, India's Ministry of Shipping said the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Petronet LNG Ltd (Petronet LNG) would work together to develop the operation of LNG barges on Ganga, National Waterway-1 (NW-I) by the end of 2018.
The Ministry of Shipping, Petronet LNG, and IWAI are said to be currently working toward the development of a detailed feasibility report for the establishment of LNG facilities at Haldia, Sahibganj, Patna, and Ghazipur on NW-I.
Earlier this month, AWAI is said to have provided cargo and traffic pattern projections for NW-I in order to enable Petronet to develop a demand estimate for LNG bunkers on the waterway.
Petronet is also expected to develop a report on the infrastructure required to transition barges to LNG bunkers, as well as to investigate the potential use of LNG on the Goa and Maharashtra waterways.
The possibility of using LNG-powered vessels on NH-5 was also discussed at a meeting earlier this month.
In December, Ship & Bunker reported that, in an effort to reduce carbon emissions without additional operating costs, India's government gave approval to a plan that will see vessels operating in the country's inland waterways switch from diesel to LNG bunkers.
