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 jumped by 11 percent in February to continue the resurgence in the nation’s natural gas use despite LNG cargo prices being 37 percent higher than last year.

Indian liquefied natural gas imports dropped for a fourth month and by more than 10 percent as the costs of shipments rose at a slower pace and the debut of a seventh terminal was delayed by higher prices while offshore domestic gas pipeline supplies continued to increase on the East Coast.

McDermott International, the Houston-based LNG and energy engineering company said it had completed work on the Reliance Industries-operated Satellite Cluster natural gas field in the Krishna Godavari Basin offshore the Indian East Coast to provide more supplies for the LNG importing nation.

India’s liquefied natural gas imports edged higher for the first month in four, along with domestic gas production, as a new LNG import facility on the West Coast is being commissioned to boost delivery capability amid the nation’s slow economic recovery from the ongoing effects of Covid-19.

Indian liquefied natural gas imports dropped by almost 30 percent last month and the import bill was also half what it was in April 2019 as the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a lockdown and affected trade activities.

LNG import for the month of April amounted 1.44. million tonnes, or around 20 cargoes, which was 29.4 percent lower than April 2019 when 2.04MT, or 29 cargoes, were delivered, according to provisional data from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The LNG deliveries to India came mainly from Qatar, Australia, the US and West Africa.

The cost of the April 2020 cargoes amounted to around $400 million compared with $800M in April 2019.

The Ministry said that gross production of natural gas for April 2020 was 2.161 billion cubic metres, a drop of 18.6 percent compared the same month a year ago when output totaled 2.656 Bcm.

The total of LNG imports has been rising to more than 350 cargoes a year as more infrastructure is constructed, including pipelines to reach more industrial and city-gas customers.

The main operating terminals on India’s West Coast are at Dahej, Hazira and Dabhol, near Mumbai.

The newest terminal at Mundra, north of Mumbai, and is now operational and awaiting more shipments.

There is additionally the Kochi facility in the southwest state of Kerala and one East Coast terminal at Kamarajar, 25 kilometres north of Chennai Port in Tamil Nadu, and also known as Ennore.

Indian LNG imports in March 2020 had increased by more than 20 percent to 2.12MT from 1.76MT in the same month of the previous year.

For the April-to-March 2019-2020 fiscal year, shipments rose by more than 17 percent to 24.9MT from 21.3MT in the previous fiscal year.

With the opening of the Mundra terminal, India now has 42.5 million tonnes per annum of regasification capacity.

Of the LNG import terminals in full commercial use, capacity utilisation at Dahej was 103.1 percent through March 2020 and total capacity is 17.5 MTPA.

At Hazira it was 97.96 percent from 5 MTPA, while at Dabhol it was 32.9 percent from 5 MTPA.

The utilization at the Kochi facility was 16.6 percent in March from 5 MTPA and at Kamarajar (Ennore) it was 9.0 percent from 5 MTPA.

The newest Mundra terminal had 29.63 percent capacity utilization from 5 MTPA of capacity.

The Mundra facility is co-owned by Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. and the Adani Group and is designed with two storage tanks.

India's import costs for the previous full 2019-2020 fiscal year fell to $9.5 billion from $10.3Bln in the previous 12-month period.