Large quantities of liquefied natural gas will start flowing into the country from the Dahej Terminal in Gujarat when it becomes operational from January next year, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik said on Thursday.

Construction of the new terminal at Dahej would be completed by December this year and "large quantities" of LNG will start flowing in from January next, which could be used by any state, Naik told Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

Replying to a series of questions, he said 16 foreign companies, besides Indian firms, had submitted their bids in the first three rounds of the New Exploration Licensing Policy and the exact response from the companies for the fourth round would be known after the bid closing date on September 30 this year.

He said the Indian oil PSUs, which were doing "extremely good work", were going abroad for oil exploration and had already invested Rs 3,900 crore (Rs 39 billion) in Sudan among others.