Total Gas and Power India (TGPI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of TOTALFINA, and Hindustan Petroleum Company Limited (HPCL) have signed a shareholders' agreement to jointly develop an LPG import terminal in Andhra Pradesh state, on the east coast of India. Under the agreement, TGPI and HPCL will each own 50% of the joint venture created to develop the project.
The terminal will have a storage capacity of 60,000 metric tons, representing an import capacity of more than one million metric tons per year. Scheduled for completion in 2003, it will be the largest import terminal on India's east coast. The facility will help meet the country's fast-growing demand for LPG, which is expected to rise from 4.5 million metric tons in 1998 to more than 10 million metric tons after 2005-2006.
The LPG will be stored in a cavern - the first facility of this type in India - for which technical feasibility studies on the site of Vishakhapatnam have already been performed.
This new agreement fits in with TOTALFINA's growth strategy in Asia. TOTALFINA is one of the world's major LPG producer and marketer and intends to reinforce its positions in this sector. |
