GAIL close to importing Rs 600 cr LNG

GAIL India, country's largest transporter and marketer of gas, has lined up Rs 600 crore for importing five spot cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in this financial year.

"There is no clear mandate on whether we can import LNG directly, or it has to be done through Petronet LNG. The government has asked us to source LNG but has not yet given us the go-ahead," a GAIL official said. The government-owned gas utility is already in talks to import LNG from either Australia, RasGas in Qatar or Algeria. "We prefer Algeria. We imported one spot cargo from that country last year," the GAIL official said. "We imported one spot cargo of LNG last year. IOC may also import spot cargoes. There is some fuzziness in the policy," the GAIL official said.

GAIL's spot LNG will either be re-gassified at Petronet LNG's regassification terminal at Dahej in Gujarat or at Shell's terminal in Hazira. "Since Petronet's terminal is handling LNG beyond its 5 million tonne capacity, we will talk to Shell for using its terminal," the GAIL official said.