India’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports rose by 7.5 percent in January, while the import bill increased by 23 percent when compared to the same month in the year before, according to the preliminary data from the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell.
The country imported 2.26 billion cubic meters or about 1.66 million tonnes of LNG in January, PPAC said.
Also, January LNG imports were flat when compared to 2.26 bcm in December.
During the April-January period, India took 22.66 bcm of LNG, or some 16.7 million tonnes, down by 14 percent, PPAC said.
India paid $1.6 billion for January LNG imports, a rise of about 23 percent compared to $1.3 billion in 2022, while costs increased about 46 percent year-on-year to $15.9 billion in April-January, it said.
As per India’s natural gas production, it rose by 4 percent to 2.97 bcm in January. Gas production increased by 1.1 percent in April-January to 28.84 bcm.
India’s monthly LNG imports have been constantly dropping last year due to mostly high spot prices. However, Asian spot LNG prices dropped this year.
Petronet LNG recently said it is expecting India’s LNG imports to increase in the first quarter of this year due to lower spot prices.
At the moment, India imports LNG via six facilities with a combined capacity of about 42.7 million tonnes.
Petronet LNG’s 17.5 mtpa Dahej terminal operated at 78.4 percent capacity, while Shell’s 5 mtpa Hazira terminal operated at 40.6 percent capacity in April-December, PPAC said.
