India's GAIL inks 20-year LNG pact with Gazprom
By RAKESH SHARMA
NEW DELHI -- India's state-run GAIL (India) Ltd. has signed a 20-year deal to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Singapore unit of Russia's state-owned gas giant, Gazprom OAO.
The deal will help India meet its growing demand for energy and the government's target of doubling the share of natural gas in the nation's energy mix to 20% by 2025. India has struggled with an energy shortage that has limited its economic growth in recent years.
The GAIL/Gazprom deal may also help revive development of the long-delayed Shtokman natural gas field in Arctic Russia, which Gazprom postponed indefinitely in August.
GAIL, a gas pipeline operator, said in a statement that it would buy 2.5 million metric tons of LNG annually from Gazprom starting in 2018/2019, with most of the supply coming from Shtokman.
The LNG will be priced according to an oil-indexed formula and delivered to India's Dahej, Dabhol and Kochi terminals.
GAIL owns and operates more than 9,500 km of cross-country natural gas pipelines.
Dow Jones Newswires
Comments