NEW DELHI: Flagship oil refiner and marketer Indian Oil and gas utility GAIL have inked a deal with an Adani Group firm for booking capacity at a liquid gas import terminal in Odisha, with the option of taking equity in the project at a later stage.

In a statement on Wednesday, GAIL said the two firms signed an MoU with Dhamra LNG Terminal which proposes to build a terminal at the Dhamra port in Bhadrak district of the state for importing gas in ships and regassify it for feeding customers in the eastern region.

Dhamra LNG Terminal proposes to build the project with an initial capacity of handling imports of 5 million tonnes per year of imported gas. Dhamra is an all-weather deep water port.

Both the state-run entities are separately pursuing projects for importing gas in ships in the coastal region. Indian Oil is planning a project in Ennore district of Tamil Nadu. Similarly, GAIL is working on projects at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.

GAIL's participation in the Dhamra project comes within a month of the company shelving its plan to set up a floating gas import terminal at Paradip in Odisha, where Indian Oil is close to starting a refinery.

In March, GAIL said in a filing that it has withdrawn its notice of October 18, 2014 calling for expressions of interest for becoming a strategic partner in the Paradip project.

The proposed facility was planned to start with a capacity of 4 million tonnes per annum and double it in the second phase to 8 million tonnes a year. GAIL had signed an MoU with the Paradip Port Trust in October 2013 for the project.