India’s April LNG imports drop almost 30 percent

India’s liquefied natural gas imports in April decreased by almost 30 per cent as coronavirus lockdown restrictions halted economic activity and pushed down demand.

India imported 1.95 billion cubic meters of LNG last month or 1.44 million tonnes, down 29.4 percent year-on-year, data from the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell shows.

India paid $0.4 billion for March LNG imports compared to $0.8 billion in April 2019.

Looking at India’s domestic natural gas production, it dropped 18.6 per cent in April to 2.16 billion cubic meters.

To remind, India’s LNG imports during the fiscal year ending March 2020 rose 17.2 per cent year-on-year to 33.7 billion cubic meters.

During the period April 2019-March 2020, Petronet LNG’s 17.5 million tonnes per year Dahej terminal continued to operate above full capacity utilization.

PPAC data shows that the LNG import terminal in Gujarat operated at 103.1 per cent capacity utilization.

Shell’s 5 million tonnes per year Hazira LNG terminal operated at 97.9 percent capacity during the same period.