Shell India Comes Up with the Country’s First Small-Scale Liquified Natural Gas Truck Loading Facility

On Tuesday, Royal Dutch Shell’s Indian subsidiary Shell India announced the start of operations at its first Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) truck-loading unit which has been inaugurated at its Liquified Natural Gas import terminal at Hazira, Gujarat.

India’s Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the truck-loading unit on Tuesday, stating that the unit is aimed at supporting the availability of Natural Gas in the off-grid areas, deprived of the connecting gas pipelines.

The move is also aimed at actualizing the vision of the Indian government which is continuously framing policies and regulatory reforms to make India a gas-based economy. The govt. of India is envisioning to increase the share of Natural Gas in the nation's primary energy mix from the current 6.2 per cent to 15 per cent by 2030.

Natural Gas is traditionally transported through pipelines from gas fields or LNG import terminals. Trucking LNG would enable the transportation of the clean-fuel gas even to small and stranded users. "While gas customers in industrial clusters are expected to be the primary beneficiaries, small-scale LNG will also support the market seeding and development of the recently licensed city gas distribution (CD) geographical areas, not yet connected by pipelines," Shell India stated in its press release on January 19^th.

Shell Energy India owns and operates a 5 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) LNG multi-cargo import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. The terminal has been in operation since 2005 and more than 600 LNG cargoes have been shipped here till date.

As per ChemAnalyst forecasts, “The idea of small-scale transportation of LNG can play a pivotal role in realizing the country’s clean-energy target. India's LNG consumption is likely to double between 2018-2024 led by economic expansion and the government's strong focus towards switching to clean energy options for heavy duty transport in India.”