The reason? Nicole McMohan, British Gas India's (BG India) director (policy and corporate affairs), would only say cryptically, "The project must be viable for BG India to take it forward."
Pipavav was to have been a flagship for BG India. The groundwork had already been done and the initial delivery of 2.65 million tonnes per annum of LNG was expected to have commenced by 2007.
Aside from importing and regassifying LNG, the Pipavav project was to have included the setting up of storage tanks, utilities, and a power plant.
Instead, as McMohan later confirmed via an email interview with an Indian English-language daily, "BG India is not progressing on Pipavav LNG at this time." She did reiterate that BG India would continue investing in other projects that are in the pipeline and would look into other sources of investment.
No reason was given but an unnamed oil industry analyst in India believes that the "Petronet LNG's terminal at Dahej in Gujarat, Shell's LNG import and regassification terminal at Hazira, and recovery from Reliance's gas find in the Krishna-Godavari basin will precede BG India's operations.
"What is more, big clients such as fertiliser and power companies have too many options for long-term agreements on LNG. All this puts a question mark on the viability of BG's investments."
