GAIL revives plan to buy US LNG as Trump ends ban on export permits

GAIL India Ltd will seek to buy a stake in a US liquefied natural gas plant or secure long-term US LNG supply after the Trump administration lifted a ban on export permits for new projects, chairman Sandeep Kumar Gupta said.

"Their (Washingtonne's) decision to lift the ban will improve LNG supply and we will revive our plans to either buy a stake or buy US LNG under long-term deals," Gupta told Reuters ahead of the India Energy Week.

He said the company would make a decision after holding a tendering process for long-term LNG purchases.

India is the world's fourth largest LNG importer and aims to raise the share of gas in the country's energy mix to 15 per cent by 2030 from 6.2 per cent currently. GAIL is India's top gas distributor.

GAIL had to stall its 2023 process to buy a stake of up to 26 per cent in an LNG plant in the United States after then-President Joe Biden paused approvals for pending and future applications to export LNG from new projects.

Gupta said global LNG prices could soften after 2026 as new projects are expected to come on stream in the US and elsewhere, adding to supply.

Asia spot LNG prices hit a two-month high last week at close to $15 per million British thermal units, tracking a rally in European gas prices. Ample supply will be coming from the US and Qatar later this decade to cap prices, analysts say.

The US is expected to nearly double its LNG export capacity by the end of the decade, while Qatar plans to expand its liquefaction capacity to 142 million metric tonnes per year by 2027 from 77 million.

Gas consumption in India is expected to rise to over 500 million standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) by 2030, Indian oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said last year.

India's gas consumption rose by about 12.5 per cent to about 185 mmscmd in fiscal year 2024 from the previous year, according to the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell.

Gupta said India's consumption will increase sharply if the government brings gas into the goods and services tax regime, instead of the multiple taxes on gas at present, to make prices cheaper and uniform across the country.

GAIL has contracted to buy 15.5 million tpy of LNG including supplies from the US, Qatar, Australia, and traders Vitol and Adnoc, according to its annual report for 2023-24.

Its long-term deals with companies in the US include the purchase of 5.8 million tpy LNG, split between Berkshire Hathaway Energy's Cove Point plant and Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass site in Louisiana.

It also awarded a five-year tender to Qatar for the purchase of one LNG cargo a month from April, sources said in December.