India could join major Asian buyers in search of flexible LNG deals

India may join Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) importing giants in joint procurement of the fuel as part of efforts to secure more flexible contracts.

India’s minister for petroleum and natural gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, noted that the liquefied natural gas market is becoming a consumer’s market, Reuters reports.

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.

Pradhan’s remarks were made only a day after Japan’s JERA, the world’s largest corporate LNG buyer, signed a deal with South Korea’s Kogas and China’s CNOOC Gas and Power Trading & Marketing to cooperate in the LNG business and to secure more flexible contracts.

LNG buyers have been for years urging the need for more flexible LNG contracts, especially when it comes to destination clauses that restrict them from reselling or swapping cargoes.

JERA did add that it intends to continue working with companies both within and outside Japan to achieve more competitive procurement in the changing LNG market.

LNG World News Staff