The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from Russian energy major Gazprom will land in India in May, following an agreement in January with India’s state-owned gas supplier and developer GAIL India to bring down prices based on a new formula.
The latter is also planning to bring at least 80 cargoes of US LNG in the current financial year.
The contract for a long-term deal mandates that GAIL (India) will purchase about 2.5 million tonnes (mt) of LNG from Gazprom per annum. This comes a few weeks after India’s first LNG cargo from the US landed at the Dhabol regasification terminal in Maharashtra.
GAIL has already signed a $32-billion deal with the Dominion Energy Cove Point project in Maryland and the Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass project in Louisiana for a supply for 20 years.
It is in talks with new fertiliser plants for the supply of imported LNG and also trying to market it to anchor customers such as refineries, power plants and petrochemical units near its planned and existing pipelines. GAIL India has entered into long-term contracts with global companies to bring LNG from various markets, expecting a rise in demand from the power sector.