GAIL Opens Singapore LNG Trading Desk

GAIL (India) Limited, the flagship natural gas company of the Government of India has opened office at Singapore.

The Company would be operating in Singapore through its subsidiary GAIL Global (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (GGSPL).  Mr. B. C. Tripathi, Chairman & Managing Director, GAIL today inaugurated the new office of the Singapore arm of GAIL with the primary purpose of sourcing Natural Gas for the Indian market and trading in LNG, petrochemicals and related products. The new office will be operational from Wangz Business Centre, Suntec Tower One, 7 Temasek Boulevard, Singapore.

GAIL Global (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. was set up as an overseas investment arm of GAIL and will now focus on activities pertaining to gas sourcing, gas trading and petrochemical trading. The Company would undertake purchase and sale of LNG cargoes on Spot / Short-Term for trading. So far, GAIL, through the Singapore arm, has made investments in China, Egypt & other countries and would be pursuing opportunities for further investment in different countries.

GAIL (India) Limited is India’s largest gas marketing and transportation company with a market share of 70% in gas transmission in the country and has been progressively importing more LNG for Indian market on spot basis due to constraints in domestic gas availability in India, GAIL. Singapore’s ideal geographical location, between LNG demand centers in North East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, China & India and LNG supply sources in South East Asia, Middle East & Australia offers a good locational advantage. Having full-fledged business operations from Singapore would facilitate GAIL to have close interaction with the global LNG players having trading activities in Singapore, which in turn would help GAIL in sourcing of LNG for India.

GAIL has recently acquired a 20% interest in Carrizo’s Eagle Ford Shale acreage position through its wholly owned subsidiary company, GAIL Global (USA) Inc.  The Joint Venture will have 20,200 gross acres, out of which GAIL subsidiary would have 4,040 net acres spread over four counties in Texas. GAIL is an equity partner in three retail gas companies in Egypt, namely Fayum Gas Company (FGC), Shell CNG Egypt (SCNGE) and National Gas Company (Natgas). GAIL is also equity partner in China Gas Holdings Limited (China Gas), a retail gas company involved in city gas and CNG business in China. Both GAIL and China Gas have formed an equally owned joint venture company, GAIL China Gas Global Energy Holdings Limited for pursuing gas sector opportunities primarily in China.  GAIL is a part of consortium in two offshore E&P blocks (A-1 & A-3) in Myanmar and also holds participating interest in the joint venture Company – South East Asia Pipeline Company Limited incorporated for transportation of the gas to be produced from A-1 and A-3 blocks in Myanmar to China.

Within India, the Company owns and operates a network of over 8,700 km of Natural Gas high pressure trunk pipeline with a capacity to carry 64 bcm of natural gas across the country. GAIL is presently implementing over 5000 km of new pipelines at an estimated investment of nearly US $ 6 billion. Once commissioned, the capacity is expected to increase from 64 bcm at present to over 110 bcm, by 2013-14 and would connect markets in Southern and Eastern parts of India. GAIL would be looking for importing LNG for its proposed LNG facility on east coast of India either directly or through its affiliates.

Petrochemicals is the second largest business segment and major growth driver for GAIL. In order to diversify its petrochemical product portfolio and actively involve in petrochemical trading activities at an international level, GAIL plans to undertake petrochemicals trading from Singapore.

GAIL is among the top 3 petrochemical producers in India. Today, it has a gas based 4,46,000 TPA petrochemicals plant in Northern India and the capacity of the plant is being almost doubled to 900,000 TPA by 2014-15 at an estimated investment of US $ 1.6 billion. In addition, GAIL through its joint venture (Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited), is also setting up an integrated Petrochemical Complex with a capacity of 280,000 TPA in north-east India at Assam. GAIL also has equity participation of 19% in and marketing rights of 38% for selling products in the ONGC Petro – additions Limited (OPaL) petrochemical project being set up at Dahej with a planned capacity of 1 million TPA.

GAIL is one of the leading public enterprises with a consistently excellent financial track record. Turnover and Profit After Tax during the last ten years have shown a compounded annual growth rate of 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. The Company recorded a Turnover of US $ 7.2 billion approx. and Profit After Tax of US $ 790 million approx. in the year 2010-11.

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Source: GAIL, November 2, 2011