Govt in talks to buy 20 million tonnes of LNG per year: Oil Minister

12 Jun 2013 Evaluate

The government is in talks to buy as much as 20 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas or LNG in order to meet the huge energy demand of the country. While addressing third IEF NOC-IOC Forum, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said India is in talks but price of over $10 would remain a challenge. With LNG demand expected to grow at 5-6% per year till 2020 and 2-3% thereafter, India along with other Asian counterparts is driving this growth, he added.

By adding further, he said the government has secured supply deal of around 14 million tonnes per annum (of LNG) and around 20 million tonnes deals are in the pipeline. However, the landed cost of gas is expected to remain high in the lower range of $10-12 per million British thermal unit from $4-5 BTU, which customers are used to.

Presently, the nation has three operational LNG import facilities in Gujarat and Maharashtra and a new 5 million tonne capacity terminal is to be commissioned in Kochi, Kerala this year. Further, LNG re-gasification capacity is expected to be more than 50 million tonnes per annum by 2016-17 with a supply of 198 million standard cubic meters per day. 

India has now become fifth largest importer of LNG after Japan, South Korea, UK and Spain and accounts for 5.5% of the total trade. As per the International Energy Agency IEA projections, India will need additional 271 million tonnes of oil and 97 million tonnes of oil equivalent gas per annum by 2030. Further, the government has set an agenda to become self-sufficiency and energy independence by 2030 and has focused on finding domestic resources of oil and gas.

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