India negotiates resumption of LNG supply from Russia

India is currently in talks with Russia to resume gas supplies under the long-term import deal between Russian state energy giant Gazprom and India’s state-controlled GAIL, according to GAIL chairman Manoj Jain, as cited by Reuters.

GAIL, the largest gas distributor and operator of pipelines in the country, couldn’t receive the previously agreed imports since May and was forced to cut supplies to clients as a result. 

“There are some immediate issues which we are trying to tackle both at the company level and also at G2G [government to government] level,” he said at an annual shareholder meeting on Friday.

Jain highlighted that the volumes under the Gazprom deal, which amounts to about a fifth of GAIL’s overall overseas gas portfolio of 14 million tons per year, have been hit by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

“So, overall it is not affecting us in a significant way. The only affect is to the extent of ten to 15 percent,” the top manager said, adding that the addition of domestic gas reduces the impact on local supplies to about 7-8%.

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GAIL signed a 20-year deal with Gazprom back in 2012. Under the terms of the contract, the company was to purchase an average 2.5 million tons of LNG, Liquefied Natural Gas, annually. Supplies under the contract began in 2018.

Gazprom Marketing Singapore (GMTS) had signed the deal on behalf of Gazprom. However, GMTS was a unit of Gazprom Germania, and was seized by Berlin as part of Western sanctions over Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

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