India battles high levels of pollution in many big cities
In order to encourage the use of cleaner fuel the South Asian country is
(a) expanding its pipeline network and
(b) building new LNG import terminals.
Spot Asian LNG prices have tumbled.Therefore in a bid to make gas more affordable, it has asked its biggest gas supplier Qatar to change the pricing under its long term oil-linked gas supply contracts. Reportedly however Qatar is not keen to renegotiate its long-term LNG deals with India.Instead Qatar is willing to negotiate the supply of additional volumes of LNG to India.
India currently imports 8.5 million t of LNG from Qatar under long-term supply contracts. Renegotiations regarding the price of these contracts are being sought by India, in light of the fact that Asian LNG spot prices recently dropped to approximately 50% of the long-term contract price.
India and the United States(US) have built close political and security ties and want to strengthen trade links, with US aiming to boost energy supplies to India, the world’s third biggest oil importer.
Tellurian Inc is focused on building its global natural gas business, beginning with Driftwood LNG.
Driftwood LNG is a proposed liquefaction and export facility near Lake Charles, Louisiana. It will have a production capacity of approximately 27.6 million tpy of LNG. The proposed facility is situated on approximately 1000 acres of land, with deepwater access, and ample pipeline infrastructure.
Reportedly the work has progressed the engineering to over 28% complete, all construction permits have been secured, and the project is shovel ready. First liquefaction expected in 2023. According to one of the sources,supplies will begin from 2024 and will be gradually raised to 5 million tonnes a year in 2028.
The delivered price of gas to India would be below $6 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), the source added. This will work out to about 30% cheaper than the country’s current long-term deals with Qatar.
A $2.5 billion deal will be signed with India based Petronet and Petronet will invest the money over a five-year period in Tellurian’s $27.5 billion Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana.India will thus be getting the producer-based prices unlike other deals where Indian companies are only one of the customers.
Asia Gas Demand suffers twin woes : Fuel Oil and Slow Economies. Between coal and oil, the volatile position of gas in emerging Asia’s energy mix is evident. Its difficult to find where do governments stand in fuel competitiveness vs. carbon reduction targets.Impacts are beginning to be felt in terms of slowing GDP growth in emerging Asian countries on coal-to-gas / HSFO-to-gas switching policies and LNG consumption. more