The Dhabol LNG Port, owned and operated by national gas major Gail, is set for major capacity augmentation with the 2.3-km-long breakwater, which will be ready by end-March, making it an all-weather port.
Called Konkan LNG (KLL which is the terminal operator), the current terminal handles only 27% or 22 ships a year as against the designated capacity of 5 million tonne per annum or 18 million metric standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) of natural gas per day, as the port can be operated only before and after the monsoons, rendering its operational for around seven months.
When the breakwater, being built by L&T since 2020 at an estimated cost of `720 crore, is expected to complete by end-March and commissioning by June after getting statutory clearances, the tanker handling capacity will rise to 30 ships immediately and then to 80 ships per annum when the ambient air heating facility will be ready by December 2026, Tony Mathew, chief executive of Konkan LNG, told TNIE.
Currently, the facility uses seawater based heating system for regasification and the `580 crore ambient air heating facility will make it achieve full capacity, said Mathew, who has been involved in almost all cross-country gas pipeline projects of Gail, particularly the most challenging ones in Kerala and Orissa.
After completion of the breakwater project all statutory clearances from the Navigational Safety in Ports Committee and the Maharashtra Maritime Board for declaring the terminal an all-weather port, situated at Dhabol in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra will take two-three months. The port has a natural draught of 18 meters.
Of the total energy requirement of 13,258 terra watt-hours, only 6.5% is met through natural gas now and government plans to take this mix to 15% by 2030.
Total natural gas intake was 51 mtpa in FY24, of which domestic gas was 27 mtpa and the imports were 24 mtpa of Gail shipped 13.8 mtpa. The uniqueness of the Dhabol breakwater is that unlike many other breakwaters, this is an island facility, making its construction far more challenging. It is built at a seabed depth of 17-18 meters, rising to 7 meters above the water level and over 100 meters at base width, and a crest width of 7.35 meters. The breakwater is coming up 2.75 km off the shore or 750 meters from the present jetty/berth built by Enron, which also built 500 m of the breakwater on 2001.
The project originally planned for completion by 2022 got delayed because of it being an island facility, construction could be done only in the non-monsoon season, the pandemic, a litany of litigations and the cyclone Tauktae in May 2021 which washed away construction materials being other reasons, Mathew said, adding apart from large boulders being used for the breakwater, 22-30,000 tonne each of concrete blocks called accropodes are also used to dissipate wave energy. Each of the accropodes are placed inter-locked and checked with Echoscopy and physically by divers.
The project is built by L&T Heavy Civil Structure Construction under the supervision of the state-run Engineers India.
Mathew said the gas intake from the present facility is only a third of the installed capacity as the NTPC-operated Dhahol Power Plant with an installed capacity of 1,960 mw across three turbines is running at very low capacity utilization as natural gas is costly now, forcing KLL to reduce its regasification capacity to only 7.5 mmsmd as against the designed capacity of 18 mmscmd, which is only 27% of the installed capacity. Not having the desired length of the breakwater also leads to lower utilization.
This will be resolved when Gail sets up an ambient air heating system (AAHS) at an investment of Rs 580 crore. KLL will shortly invite civil tenders for this, Mathew said, adding once the breakwater is completed the terminal will achieve 41% of the designed capacity of 5 mtpa (80 cargoes/year ) and will achieve 100% capacity after completion of the AAHS expected by December 2026.
Konkan LNG is also going for expansion of the terminal from 5 mtpa to 6.3 mtpa in the second leg of the first phase with an estimated expenditure of Rs 1,100 crore by 2030, which will enable to handle 100 cargoes per year and further to 15 mtpa in the second phase at an estimated cost of Rs 9,400 crore by 2035 which will equip it to handle 200 ships per year.
The purpose of the breakwater at Dhabol is to create calm waters for vessels by protecting the terminal from underwater swells, waves, and strong currents. Since Dhabol lacks a natural barrier, a man-made breakwater is essential for ensuring safe berthing, unloading of LNG carriers.