LNG

Indian liquefied natural gas imports rebounded by more than 11 percent in June even at higher prices after last month’s decline as internal gas demand also increased along with domestic production.

LNG imports for the month of June amounted to 1.96 million tonnes, or 29 cargoes, compared with 1.76MT, or 26 cargoes, in June 2023, an increase of 11.3 percent, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

LNG imports for the month of May had also come to 1.96MT compared with 2.11MT in May 2023, a decrease of 7.2 percent.

The deliveries for the first three months of the fiscal year so far from April to June edged higher by 0.7 percent to 5.77MT versus 5.73MT in the prior-year period.

Data showed that LNG deliveries in June 2024 cost $1.1 billion which was 10 percent higher than the $1Bln paid in June 2023.

Deliveries of LNG to India’s growing number of regasification terminals come from Qatar, which provides over one-third of volumes, as well as West Africa, the US, Russia Asia-Pacific nations and the spot market.

India’s eighth LNG import terminal, the Chhara facility in the West Coast state of Gujarat, received its commissioning cargo in April 2024.

The Chhara terminal has 5 million tonnes per annum of capacity and has been developed by Hindustan Petroleum Corp.

Domestic gas

The Indian Ministry data showed that India’s domestic natural gas production for the month of June rose by 2.9 percent to 2.993 billion cubic metres versus the 2.910 Bcm reported in June last year.

In the three months of the current fiscal year so far, natural gas output increased by 5.7 percent to 9.056 Bcm, up from 8.564 Bcm in the same period of 2023.

Reliance Industries, the Indian group with significant energy interests, started up a third gas field in the Krishna Godavari Basin KG-D6 block on the East Coast a year ago in a joint venture with BP of the UK. 

India’s production of coal-bed methane (CBM), which in Australia is used to produce LNG, also increased in June to 59.63 Bcm, up from 58.60 Bcm in May 2024 and was at 173.10 Bcm for the first three months of the fiscal year.

The Ministry also gave average capacity utilization rates for seven LNG terminals and with data covering the period from April 2024 to May 2024.

The total capacity of existing terminals has now risen to 52.7 MTPA from the eight facilities. 

However, the Chhara LNG terminal will take several months to appear in the Ministry regasification data book.

Regasification

The largest Indian terminal at Dahej, located north of Mumbai and operated by Petronet LNG, has capacity of 17.5 MTPA and had the highest utilisation rate of 107.2 percent of nameplate capacity in the period, up from 101 percent in May.

At the Hazira facility, operated by Shell India, the utilisation rate increased to 38.3 percent from 28.6 percent in May for 5.2 MTPA of capacity.

The GAIL (India) terminal at Dabhol, south of Mumbai, reported 73.8 percent usage, up from 69.9 percent last month for its 5 MTPA.

The West Coast terminal at Mundra belonging to Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. had regas levels at  34.4 percent up from 33.8 percent in MTPA and its highest ever for 5 MTPA.

At the Kochi facility owned by Petronet in the southwest state of Kerala usage edged lower to 20.6 percent from 20.9 percent last month for 5 MTPA of regas capacity.

The Kamarajar (Ennore) terminal owned by Indian Oil on the East Coast, saw capacity rise to 25.8 percent from 25.6 last month for 5 MTPA.

At the second East Coast terminal, owned by the Adani group and TotalEnergies and located at Dhamra in the state of Odisha, the utilisation rate was 25 percent in the April-May period, down from 26.9 percent for its 5 MTPA.

The Ministry data also showed that the nation had a total of 23,560 kilometres of natural gas pipelines in operation and another 5,630km was currently under construction.

GAIL India had the longest network of 15,916km of pipelines and a distant second place was occupied by the Gujarat State pipelines group and its 2,722km of pipelines.

Consumption

India’s natural gas consumption for June was 5.594 Bcm, an increase of 7.1 percent from 5.224 Bcm in June 2023.

Consumption for the April-to-June period was 16.707 Bcm, up by 3.8 percent compared with the 16.101 Bcm logged in the same period of 2023.

The major Indian consumers of natural gas are the fertilizer industry with around 34 percent of consumption, city-gas 22 percent, power generation 15 percent, refineries 9 percent, petrochemicals 5 percent and others 15 percent.  

Indian liquefied natural gas imports went into reverse last month and fell by more than 7 percent even as prices declined and more regasification infrastructure was put in place, while the need for imports was offset by growth in domestic gas output, including coal-bed methane.

Indian liquefied natural gas imports showed a long-awaited surge of over 17 percent in the full fiscal year to the end of March as growing domestic gas output was offset by falling LNG prices and the nation’s increasing demand for gas marked by a new West Coast terminal set to start commercial operations soon

Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL), an Indian state-controlled company, has acquired an additional 50 percent stake in an LNG project firm building an import terminal at the port of Chhara in the West Coast state of Gujarat, giving it full ownership with the purpose of advancing towards completion.