MEIDP - The Deep Sea Gas Route to India
Authors: Nash Ian Frederick John , Roberts Peter M. 
Published: May 2011

High pressure trunk lines have proved to be the safest and cheapest way of transporting gas to market for short to medium distances up to 2,500 kilometers, making the proposed SAGE Middle East to India Deepwater Pipeline the optimal solution for gas delivery to the Indian Subcontinent. Linking the Middle East gas fields with India across the Arabian Sea for an offshore distance of 1300 kilometers, the SAGE gas transmission pipeline is designed to transport up to 1.1BCFD gas into the Indian energy markets.

This paper will present details of recent studies that have enhanced the technical and commercial feasibility of the SAGE system, which will reach a record water depth of 3400m, cross two continental slopes, an earthquake subduction zone (deepsea trench) and outfall debris of the river Indus fan.

The economic and socio-political drivers for such a project will be presented together with future schedule for first Gas. The current design status will be reviewed and the challenges faced by the project from both a design and installation perspective will be presented. As a project that builds from the Oman-India project of the 1990's with the changes in risk profile, in terms of industry and vessel readiness, will be reviewed and the status of the next generation of installation vessels to install such a pipeline will be presented.

Introduction

South Asia Gas Enterprise Pvt Ltd (SAGE), a joint venture between the Indian Siddhomal group and UK based deep water technology companies, is actively considering building a deepwater, transnational, natural gas pipeline system from the Middle East to India. Over 2,000 TCF of natural gas reserves are held by countries with which India has a traditional trading relationship, including Qatar, Iran and Turkmenistan. The deepwater route across the Arabian Sea is the shortest secure distance between these huge reserves and the rapidly developing industrial heartland of India in Gujarat, and is too short for LNG to be an economic transportation option. The current work builds on the extensive study of the deepwater route of the Oman to India Pipeline that was carried out in the early 1990's. The case for this route has been strengthened by more recent development work undertaken by SAGE and by the major body of deepwater design and pipelay experience accumulated over the last decade. The pipeline is to be developed by a global consortium of design and construction contractors.

Project Overview

Peritus International Ltd has been retained by SAGE to act as overall project management and pipeline design consultants for the planned Middle East to India Deepwater Pipeline (MEIDP), which will be the first of many in a corridor of pipelines that will form the final leg of a major energy supply route linking the Middle East with India. The MEIDP 610 mm ID pipeline has been sized to facilitate the delivery of 1.1 BSCFD of sales quality natural gas to India. In the baseline design case, the pipeline will originate in Oman at the Middle East Compression Station (MECS) and terminate in India at the Gujarat Pipeline Receiving Terminal (GPRT). In the crossing of the Arabian Sea, the pipeline will reach water depths of around 3,400m and will be around 1,300km in length. An Offshore Gas Compression Station (OGCS) may be placed some 300km from the Omani coast on top of the Qualhat Seamount (Murray Ridge) where the water depth reduces to about 400m.

Imported gas will play an important role in bridging the demand-supply gap in the Indian market. India currently imports around 1.1BSCFD in the form of LNG to meet its shortfall between supply and demand. Based on EIA reference case (ref 1) this shortfall is expected to rise dramatically by 2020, and continue rising through to 2030 when it will peak at 3.56BSCFD, Figure 1.