Dahej (Gujarat): After the US, Russia Monday began supplying LNG to India under a long-term deal as world’s fourth-largest buyer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) diversifies import basket to meet its vast energy needs.
LNG carrier ‘LNG Kano’, carrying a cargo from Russian supplier Gazprom, docked at Petronet LNG’s import facility here this morning, officials said.
Gazprom supplied the 3.4 trillion British thermal unit (TBtu) of cargo from Nigeria.
The LNG cargo was received by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Today will be considered as Golden Day in India’s energy roadmap, he told reporters here. “First we renegotiate price of LNG from Qatar, then reworked Australian supplies and now gas from Russia under renegotiated terms have started to flow.”
India will import LNG worth an estimated $ 25 billion over the contract period of 20 years years from Russia, he adding, “Gazprom price (after being reworked) is very competitive.”
“Four years back, we were importing LNG from only Qatar. Today we are getting LNG from Australia, US and now Russia,” Pradhan said.
India, he said, is pushing towards a gas-based economy by raising the share of environment-friendly fuel in the energy basket to 15 per cent from current 6.2 per cent.
There exists huge scope for gas usage in the Indian economy – from generating power to producing quality steel, he said adding that increasing gas share would also help the country meet its COP21 commitment to cutting carbon emission.
India is dependent on imports to meet 45 per cent of its
gas needs.
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