GSL mulling use of CNG fuel for naval vessels

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VASCO: Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), in collaboration with two agencies; Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, plans to use natural gas as fuel for next generation naval warships.


The project, currently in the proposal stage, will be undertaken as a pilot study through an agreement with the key stakeholders.


"I have suggested to Goa Shipyard and the Indian Coast Guard, and maybe GAIL will partner with these two agencies. We want to have a pilot study to see whether we can use LNG or CNG as a fuel, which is cheaper and cleaner for marine shipping," minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan said, who made the proposal to GSL while commissioning the Indian Coast Guard ship (ICGS) 'Shaurya'.


ICGS Shaurya is an offshore patrol vessel that will be stationed along the western coast and is tasked with protecting India's off-shore assets and the exclusive economic zone. The offshore patrol vessel is the fifth, in a series of six offshore patrol vessels, that the Coast Guard had tasked GSL to build.


"The Indian marine sector usually uses high speed diesel. Gradually, new fuels like CNG and LNG are coming in. We will soon have a technical memorandum of understanding with these three organisations," Pradhan said.


Gas India Limited (GAIL) is the largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company, and has a 175km long Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) pipeline that terminates at Vasco. Pradhan wants to utilize this pipeline to provide fuel for warships that GSL builds for the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard. "We can see how we can create engineering capability, because the Coast Guard needs both, high speed and slow (speed) ships for surveillance. We have to work out how can we do this with gas fuel. We want to start that project in Goa Shipyard limited," Pradhan said.


GSL chairman and managing director Shekhar Mital said that the shipyard had already commenced discussions with the inland waterways authority to explore how CNG or LNG can be used as a fuel.

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