NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Fertiliser and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) aims to boost output by two thirds to a million tonnes in 2016/17 after a sharp fall in liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, its chairman said on Friday.
Asian LNG prices have declined by 75 percent since 2014 because of falls in global oil prices, reducing the cost of the feedstock to produce ammonia for fertiliser production.
FACT resumed LNG imports in April after a gap of more than a year, buying at $7.79 per million British thermal units (Btu), Chairman Jaiveer Srivastava said.
"We never thought, nor even dreamt, that we would get LNG at this rate" Srivastava told Reuters.
The company issued a tender on Friday seeking to import 10.39 trillion Btu of LNG equivalent in three cargoes over the year to August 2017.
"We may get $5-$6/mBtu (price for LNG import)," Srivastava said.
FACT's LNG purchases will also help India's top gas importer Petronet LNG to reduce losses at its Kochi terminal.
"Last year capacity use at Kochi was about 2 percent. This year it could be 5-6 percent," said Petronet LNG's head of finance, R. K. Garg.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by David Goodman)
