After the US, Russia today 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 USD 25 billion over the contract period of 20 years years from Russia, he adding, "Gazprom price (after being reworked) is very competitive."
Pradhan said that the starting of LNG imports from Russia has added a new dimension to the Indo-Russian bilateral relations, particularly in the oil and gas sector. ?
Russia has emerged as a long-term source for India's hydrocarbon imports, he said. ?
Stating that government is committed towards transforming India into a gas-based economy, he said investments are being made for augmenting natural gas infrastructure. ?
The pricing of the super-cooled fuel has been changed from 9 month linkage of Japanese customs-cleared crude to three months average of Brent, sources said. ?
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