Indian liquefied natural gas imports last month dropped by almost 15 percent amid a surge in cargo prices and a slower resumption of full activity because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shipments to India’s network of regasification terminals mostly concentrated on the West Coast amounted to 1.87 million tonnes in July, or around 27 cargoes, a drop of 14.9 percent on the 2.19MT imported in July 2020, according to preliminary monthly data from the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Analysts said industrial demand was still recovering as India continued its Covid-19 vaccination programme and the death toll attributed to the virus approached 4.4 million people.
The nation’s LNG shipments had dropped by more than 17 percent in June 2021 to 1.71MT, also affected by a 40 percent surge in cargo prices year-on-year.
Increasing domestic natural gas production has more than offset the fall in LNG imports.
The cumulative imports for the first four months of the fiscal year came to 7.52MT, up 2.0 percent on the first third of 2020 when 7.37MT was imported.
However, India is having to pay much more for its LNG cargoes than it did a year ago.
The July imports cost around $900 million versus $500M in July 2020 and $3.1 billion in the four months of the fiscal year so far compared with $1.9Bln in the previous fiscal year.
LNG deliveries to India come mainly from Qatar, which provides over one-third of volumes, as well as West Africa, the US, Asian nations, Australia and the spot market.
