THE GAS HIGHWAY

THE GAS HIGHWAY - Author - Ajay Kumar (Chairman Fox Petroleum)

We at Fox Petroleum Group, has plans to build the Oman –to- India Deepwater Multi Purpose Pipeline (OIMPP), a Deepwater transnational, natural gas pipeline system that will cross the Arabian Sea. The OIMPP is anticipated to be the first of many in a corridor of pipelines that will form the final leg of a major energy supply route linking the two countries crossing the sea; Importing LNG is a rather costly process, but unavoidable because the sources of gas are far away. This cost can be avoided if gas is imported through pipelines and then transported across the country through existing and future-planned pipelines in India.

In the last few years, deep sea gas pipeline technology has matured. Since India has serious security concerns with regard to pipeline projects over land, a deep sea pipeline is probably the most promising option. OIMPP will be 1609 KM Aprox. The project intends to transport 8 tcft (trillion cubic feet) of natural gas to India over a period of 20 years. The pipeline is planned to be about aprox 1,300 km long in phase I and 300 Km more to connect Mumbai, laid at a max depth of 3,400 to 3500 meters below the seabed. It will connect onshore the Middle East Compression Station near Oman with the receiving terminal near Porbander, Gujarat. The estimated cost of this project is $5-5.6 billion and can be executed in about max to max five years.

Geographically & Geopolitically, the Oman-India Pipeline is comparatively more feasible because India is close to the sources of natural gas in the Middle East and the undersea distance is less than 1,300 km if connected to Gujarat coast only . Another reason in favour of this project is the landed cost at Oman Point, which will be lesser by $1.5 to $2 per million BTU as compared to LNG imports. Furthermore, this pipeline could be linked to other natural gas sources in the Middle East and even to Turkmenistan and Iran if need be. A single uniformly sized pipeline from the Oman coast near Al Duqam near to Ra’s Al Madrakkha to the Indian coast at Porbander, Gujarat.

Considering the fact that known sources of natural gas in India till date is just 1.33 trillion cubic metres, India will need to source a major portion of natural gas supply from outside to meet the rising demand. The government will need to make planned efforts to find a lasting solution to the problem. The sooner the government takes a serious view on the proposal, the better it will be in the interest of the country to ensure its energy security.

A boom in LNG demand and projects is taking shape in India. Demand for natural gas, mainly from new power generation projects, fertilizer plants, and industrial users, is projected to soar in the world's second most populous nation. Its paltry domestic output of natural gas mandates that India must import natural gas to meet it expected explosive growth in demand for the fuel. While pipeline imports might seem a logical choice, this is a problematic alternative. Hence, Oman-India Multi-Purpose Pipeline can solve the energy demand in wholesale for next 25-30 Years; According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, this shortfall is expected to rise dramatically by 2020 and continue rising through 2030, when it will peak at 3.56 billion cubic feet per day.

Final proposed route map of OIMPP as decided by our team and it is a dual sized, single, pipeline from the Oman coast near Ra’s Al Jifan will be linked to DUQAM onshore and from Al DUQAM to the Indian coast at Gujarat; You will see the - Impact of the Line Oman–India – Multi-Purpose Pipeline on India – “It will be a known as GAS HIGHWAY, and will make India ‘No Dark Zone’”.

For the implementation, we have undergone thru vast study, we have thought about four possible cases of laying the pipeline with calculation the CAPEX and OPEX of the project; But finally, still we are planning to go by our costlier plan i.e. Plan – A (Excluding the plan B,C,D); Plan A- High Pressure (Dense Phase) :This 42 inch (1067 mm) OD pipeline is a single compressor station configuration. The pipeline inlet pressure is in the dense phase zone. After processing and passing through the first stage scrubber, the lean gas pressure is raised from 4.24 to 9.122 MPa (615 to 1323 Psia), then cooled to 37.8 ?C (100 ?F). The gas is compressed further in the second stage to 19.623 MPa (2846 Psia). The high pressure compressed gas is cooled back to 37.8 ?C (100 ?F) and then passed through a separator before entering the long pipeline. And the CAPEX of this will be : USD $ 5165.95 Million Dollar plus Power station cost for 105.7 MW + all other sub station cost : USD $ 238 Million Dollar along with ±5% of the project cost i.e USD $5.6 Billion Dollars Approx;

The Impact will be higher in the economy of OMAN in the Middle East; Let me not confuse you, must explain in my capacity and knowledge, what Geopolitics is in this case; Geopolitics,” meant “the cram of how factors such as geography and economics influence politics and relations between nations.” Now it means politics among (not just between) nations and rivalries for international power. A geopolitically successful nation delivers on promises to allies and threats to rivals — or loses allies and strengthens rivals. And, earlier weapon was Crude Oil now an added weapon to settle the score is LNG between the Countries; The failure of some of them was due to the Geopolitics in the region; You will get LNG supply if you are in good books of the supplier country and the banking channels are open;

And we are in Good Books of Middle East Countries and Central Asia Nations, due to the efforts made by our current Prime Minister of the Republic of India HE Shri Narendra Damodar Das Modi; We are not here to contradict you but will add some latest information that in March 2014 Iran signed a 25-year agreement to supply 10 Bcm of natural gas per year to Oman, starting by 2017. The deal will require the construction of a 260 km-long subsea pipeline from Iran’s Hormozgan Province to Oman’s Sohar port on the other side of the Persian Gulf. Our plan to develop “The Gas Highway” will take add in advantage; And, whereas Oman is an FTA nation i.e. Oman can import gas from United States of America also; it will be a business for us to provide the services to Indian market; When the product “The Gas Highway” will be in place, we will have more marketing system than in our plan. The market for “The Gas Highway” to be used is beyond our expectation; We can count only 1% from Iran’s resources for our pipeline will be enough (157 billion barrels of proven oil reserves ; 1,187.3 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves ; $35.3 trillion value at current prices) and why to forget the Qatar Gas (63 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves; $11.8 trillion value at current prices) will be cheaper if supplied thru pipeline. And, we all know that Saudi Arabia doesn’t export Gas despite having big gas resource amount 290.8 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserve; $33 trillion value at current prices, but at this point of time we have calculations that Saudi Arabia will open Gas market by 2017 1st Quarter, to compensate the loss due to sinking crude prices; As well as if the transnational connectivity of gas pipeline will take place between Oman-UAE-Qatar and Iraq it will create big business for “The Gas Highway –Oman India Pipeline”;

As far as my Country is concerned and the knowledge I have, I can say, if THE GAS HIGHWAY comes with full fledged role to supply LNG to gas hungry energy market of India, no dought it will make India – “NO DARK ZONE” as well as “FATTEN THE ECONOMY”.

Thank You.