GAIL project won't be forced on TN: Pradhan

Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas (independent charge) Dharmendra Pradhan

has said that talks were being held with the representatives of farmers association for monetising

gas from the methane extraction and the GAIL project.

'The projects will commence only by consensus and not by force. We have asked the State

government to hold talks with the associations,' he said.

Pradhan unveiled the golden Stupa and inaugurated the mounded bullets facility at the CPCL

premises in Manali during the golden jubilee celebrations here yesterday.

The Union Minister said that there was some anxiety among the farmers fraternity regarding the gas

projects in the State and assured that they would be looked into.

Tamilnadu has a great potential in industry and Manali is an example which should be extended to

other parts of the State which will provide more employment opportunities.

The Minister also hinted that he was in favour of merging CPCL with IOCL. In this regard, he said the

Central government was ready to merge the two and decision hinged on the CPCL management.

'Our vision is to create a mega project in which all the exploration and production firms come under

one umbrella. When the next expansion happens, CPCL should be within the umbrella of IOCL.' he

said.

The Union Minister also said that there were technical issues in the expansion of CPCL because of

Iranian share-holding.

The Indian government has been attempting to buy stakes of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOL).

CPCL was formed as a joint venture (Madras Refineries Ltd) of government of India, Amoco India Inc,

US and NIOL in 1965. But Amoco disinvested its equity in favour of GOI in 1985 and GOI transferred

its equity share of 51.81 per cent to IOCL in 2001, he added.

Pradhan pointed out that a petrochemical hub will be established in Manali to meet the demands of

the region. 'With CPCL Manali having the potential to meet the energy needs of Tamilnadu and

neighbouring States we will now be able to concentrate in the petrochemical feedstock. Earlier our

focus was only on transportation fuel and LPG. Now, our petrochemical per capita consumption is

lower compared to the world average and I see petrochemicals as one of the sunrise sectors of the

Indian economy that can provide new entrepreneurship, employments and lot of revenues to

government,' the Minister said

Quoting the International Energy Agency estimates, Pradhan said that India would have to add at

least 300 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) over the next 25 years in order to meet the

domestic energy demand, which is forecast to grow to 600 MMTPA by 2040 from about 200 MMTPA

this year. Present refining capacity in India is 230 MMTPA.

He pointed out that after Gujarat, only Manali complex in Chennai had the natural ecosystem for

expansion of crude oil refinery and petrochemical complex.

Chairman of IOCL B Ashok said the capacity of the refinery had grown from 2.5 MMTPA to 11.5

MMTPA in the past 50 years and employee strength increased from 350 to 1650 during this period.

Union Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan said Manali

refinery had become one among the residents.

'Talks are on with the State government to implement the 'UJWAL' scheme and we have got a

positive response. Through this scheme five crore families will get free LPG connection in the next

five years,' he said.

NGS INDIA