Ronnie Lim, Business Times 2 Apr 09;
INDIA'S GMR Group is intent on pushing ahead with Singapore's long-stalled $1.5 billion Island Power project through its half- owned unit Intergen.
'We are optimistic the project can be commissioned soon,' GMR International CEO Ranjit Murugason said here yesterday.
But he would not give a time line for construction of the 785-megawatt (MW) plant, saying only that 'the commissioning date is currently under review'.
Mr Murugason was speaking at a news conference to launch GMR's South-east Asian regional headquarters - its first Asian office outside India.
The company is keen on a generating presence here after it bid unsuccessfully last year for Tuas Power and Senoko Power when Temasek Holdings put them on the block.
Reflecting this, the Singapore office 'will for the immediate future focus on power generation projects', said GMR's South-east Asian head Ng Quek Peng, a former managing director with Temasek.
Mr Murugason said GMR, which is also into infrastructure projects such as airport expansions in Delhi and Hyderabad, has for the past four months been looking at the Island Power project and considers it an excellent idea.
'We have high expectations of the project's return on investment,' he said.
GMR's push for Island Power follows its US$1.1 billion acquisition last October of a half-stake in Intergen, which has been trying to build Island's project here since 2002.
'We don't envisage any issue over gas supplies,' Mr Murugason said, without saying directly whether Island would use liquefied natural gas (LNG), which will be available here when the planned LNG terminal on Jurong Island is ready around mid-2010.
But Island clearly still wants to pursue its initial plan to use piped natural gas (PNG), with Mr Murugason stressing that the project is exempt from an Energy Market Authority (EMA) freeze on further imports of PNG for power generation, at least until the LNG terminal is on its feet.
BT reported in February that Island was trying to negotiate a new PNG deal while awaiting a response to its appeal to the Ministry of Trade and Industry against an EMA decision that it cannot access Singapore's gas pipeline network unless it has a natural gas supply deal in hand.
It was a Catch 22 for Island - its earlier agreement to buy 110 million cu ft of gas daily was cancelled by Indonesian gas regulator BPMigas after it failed to gain access to the Singapore pipeline.
Through Intergen, GMR has 808MW of operational power projects in India, among 7,658MW worldwide.
Its Singapore HQ will help oversee power projects in Australia and the Philippines and coal mines in Indonesia.
