New Delhi: GAIL, India’s Natural Gas leader and a Public Sector undertaking got two prestigious awards at the Asian Oil and Gas Awards event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The coveted “Innovation Award – India” was given to GAIL for reduction in LNG Shipping cost & emissions through Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfer of LNG with backhauling. Another top-notch award “Midstream Project of the Year – India” has been given for the installation of the first floating Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station at Varanasi. The Award recognizes the most outstanding players in Asia’s oil and gas sector.
GAIL charter hired LNG vessel Al Gharrafa from QatarGas in Gibraltar and transferred cargo from Castillo De Santisteban into Al Gharrafa through STS transfer. This is the world’s first STS between a large conventional LNG vessel and a Q-Flex LNG Vessel. QatarGas Vessel proceeded to Dahej to discharge the Cargo originally planned to be discharged by GAIL’s Vessel and the vessel returned back from Gibraltar to the next loading port. This innovation has resulted in savings of approximately 8736 nautical miles, equivalent to approximately 7000 tonnes of CO2 emission. Furthermore, this has resulted in shortening the voyage of the GAIL’s chartered vessel from 54 days to approximately 27 days.
GAIL’s floating CNG station on River Ganga at Namo Ghat, Varanasi is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the world to run boats on cleaner fuel-CNG in the river. GAIL has created a CNG dispensing infrastructure, which manages the response of the edifice against the variating water levels. The project has led to the gradual transitioning of motorized boats from polluting fuels to cleaner and affordable CNG.
