India boosts March LNG imports

India’s liquefied natural gas imports in March increased by 20.4 per cent when compared to the same month before.

India imported 2.87 billion cubic meters of LNG last month compared to 2.38 billion cubic meters in March 2019, data from the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell shows.

During the fiscal year ending March 2020, India’s LNG imports rose 17.2 per cent year-on-year to 33.7 billion cubic meters, PPAC said.

The costs of March LNG imports were at $0.7 billion, while India paid $9.5 billion for the LNG imports in the year ending this March.

This compares to $0.7 billion and $10.3 billion India paid for LNG imports in March 2019 and fiscal year ending March 2019, respectively.

PPAC data shows that Petronet LNG’s 17.5 million tonnes per year Dahej terminal continues to operate above full capacity utilization.

The LNG import terminal in Gujarat operated at 104.2 per cent capacity utilization during the April 2019-February 2020 period.

Shell’s 5 million tonnes per year Hazira LNG terminal operated at 98.8 percent capacity during the same period.

Looking at India’s domestic natural gas production, it dropped 14.4 per cent in March to 2.4 billion cubic meters.

In the fiscal year ending this March, production increased by 5.2 per cent to 31.18 billion cubic meters, PPAC said.