New players in the oil & gas sector are set to bid for the three gas pipelines that the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board is planning to award by the end of this month. Apart from state owned pipeline network company GAIL, new entrants in the field such as Adani, Welspun, IL&FS, Lanco and Anil Ambani group are actively participating in bid discussions.

Mr L Mansingh chairman of PNGRB said that Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation has also entered the fray forming a consortium with three state-owned oil marketing companies BPCL, IOC and HPCL. The board will award the deals by this month-end after a Supreme Court hearing on November 29.

Mr Mansingh said that "We are waiting for a legal matter to be sorted out. We have filed an interim application in the Supreme Court seeking modification of an interim order passed by the Delhi High Court which stated that the regulatory body has the authority to process all the matters but cannot take a final decision on sanctioning of the bids. The hearing is on November 29, and we are waiting for that.”

He added that "There is no question of powers of the board not being there. Legally speaking, we still have the powers.” The three pipelines are Vijaipur-Bhilwada, Mehsana-Bhatinda, Bhatinda-Jammu-Srinagar. The other two that PNGRB is planning to invite bids for are Surat-Paradip and Asansol-Howrah.

The board expects an additional 5,000 kilometres of pipeline to be added in the next 5 years. Mr Mansingh said that "We are expecting more expressions of interest particularly for regional lines because in many states where the gas is going to come, they want it to be distributed."

(Sourced from DNA)