NEW DELHI: State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) may acquire 8% stake in Petronet LNG Ltd’s Rs 500 liquefied natural gas crore (LNG) terminal at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh.

A senior Petronet official said, “HPCL it has shown interest in acquiring a stake in the terminal as it has a major stake in the gas requirements of the Visakhapatnam refinery.”

HPCL Visakhapatnama Gangarava port is just a few kilometers away and expanding its annual capacity to 15 million tons from the current 8.333 varying tons. At 1 million tons, the gas demand from the expansion will be close to 25-3 million standard cubic meters per day.

“We have acquired 24% stake in the port along with strategic investors, for which Gangavaram Port has acquired 8% stake and offered a similar stake to the LNG supplier so that HPCL could get 8% share.” He said.

The Andhra Pradesh government has also expressed interest. The acquisition of 5% Petronet stake will give Petronet a 69% stake.

A few years ago, HPCL ruled out formation of Petronet’s PSUs Thus, the alliance was ruled out of LNG Except in the bus sector. Indian Oil Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC, GAIL and Bharat Petroleum each hold 12.5% stake in Petronet.

Gas utility GAIL officials said India Ltd has expressed interest in booking half of the company’s 5,000-year million tons of import capacity. A terminal building is planned.

“We are working with GAILL Discussions are on but not yet finalized,” he said.

Gangavaram The project received full approval from the state government last month, a year and a half behind schedule, and Petronet is now looking to set up import facilities by 2018.

This will be Petroent’s first import facility on the East Coast. The company has terminals with a capacity of 10 million tons per annum (mtpa) in Dahj, Gujarat and 5 mtpa in Cochin, Kerala.

By the end of 2016, Petronet plans to expand Dahej’s capacity to 15 million tons and add 2.5 jetties. The cost of reaching 10 million tons of capacity would be around Rs 11 tn crore.

The official said the company is looking for a strategic partner that can bring in natural gas or LNG (liquefied natural gas is converted to liquid at-160 degrees Celsius) or buy a minimum amount of imported fuel in the domestic market.