Gazprom notifies India’s GAIL of imminent LNG deal start

India’s gas utility GAIL has reportedly been notified by the Russian giant Gazprom that deliveries under the 2.5 mtpa LNG deal signed in 2012 are to start in April.

The notice comes at a time when GAIL is looking to renegotiate the contract, sources told Bloomberg.

The utility faced a lack of domestic buyers for the liquefied natural gas volumes it booked on long-term contracts, amounting to almost half of the country’s LNG imports in the year to March.

GAIL has already agreed to sell some of the volumes it secured from the LNG projects under development in the United States.

In October, the company’s chairman B.C. Tripathi was reported as saying the company has managed to renegotiate two long-term contracts and was working on the third and fourth, the 20-year deal with Gazprom being one of those.

India’s tax provisions are curbing the wider uptake of the fuel by the price-sensitive customers.

LNG World News Staff