India boosts February LNG imports

India’s imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rose 19.2 percent in February as compared to the same month a year ago.

India imported 2.13 billion cubic meters or about 1.57 million mt of LNG in February, as compared to 1.78 Bcm in the same month in 2016, according to the data from oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

This is India’s first monthly increase in LNG imports after posting a decline in January and December, respectively.

Domestic natural gas production declined 1.7 percent in February to 2.52 Bcm, the PPAC data shows.

In the April-February period, India’s LNG imports rose 16.4 percent year-on-year to 22.53 Bcm or about 16.67 million mt of LNG.

The country’s LNG imports have been rising since the beginning of last year on the back of lower prices.

Costs of importing LNG into India have dropped sharply in 2016 after the country’s largest importer, Petronet LNG signed a revised long-term contract with Qatari LNG producer RasGas.

India paid $0.6 billion for March LNG imports. In the April-February period, LNG import costs reached $5.4 billion, PPAC said.

This year, India made additional steps to further boosting its imports of the chilled fuel as part of plans to shift to a natural gas-based economy.

The country announced last month it would halve its basic customs duty on imports of LNG from current 5 percent to 2.5 percent.

India’s ministry of the road, transport and highways has also recently given the green light for the use of LNG as fuel for road vehicles.

LNG World News Staff