Former Russian unit resumes regular LNG supplies to India

A former unit of Russian energy giant Gazprom has resumed supplying LNG to Indian State gas utility GAIL, a year after it halted supplies due to Ukraine war.

A former unit of Russian energy giant Gazprom has resumed supplying LNG to Indian State gas utility GAIL, a year after it halted supplies due to Ukraine war.

Sefe Marketing and Trading Singapore Pte Limited (SMTS), erstwhile Gazprom Marketing and Trading Singapore Pte Limited, supplied two liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes each in March and April and has committed four shiploads each in May and June, GAIL (India) Limited chairman and managing director Sandeep Gupta said on May 18. "Hopefully, similar volumes will ne nominated for future months also," he said. Sefe will decide on volumes on a month-to-month basis.

GAIL had in 2012 signed a 20-year deal with Gazprom Marketing and Singapore (GMTS) to buy 2.85 million tonnes per annum of LNG. Supplies started in 2018 and the full volume was to reach in 2023.

GMTS had signed the deal on behalf of Gazprom. GMTS was moved to Gazprom Germania, now called Sefe. But in early April last year, Gazprom gave up the ownership of the German unit without giving a reason and placed parts of it under Russian sanctions. This followed the West slapping sanctions on Russia for its February 24 invasion of Ukraine. It invoked force majeure and stopped supplies to India from June 2022.

Mr. Gupta said normal supplies have resumed and hope they will continue. Sefe, formerly GMTS, "in its annual delivery plan and in their latest communications have maintained their alleged force majeure stance citing various reasons such as Russian sanctions on its LNG source/portfolio and mandate from German authorities (BnetzA) for ensuring energy security for Europe for their inability to deliver LNG cargoes," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli had told Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question on March 23 this year.

However, "while SMTS maintains its force majeure stance, as on date SMTS has informed that they shall be able to supply two cargoes (shipload) in March 2023 and two in April 2023," he had added.

To mitigate the shortfall in Russian supplies, GAIL imposed supply cuts to users from mid-July 2022 to mid-March 2023.