India’s largest gas distributor GAIL (India) Ltd is set to buy a stake of up to 26% in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant or project in the United States, according to a document released by the company.
GAIL suffered a supply disruption last year after Russia’s Gazprom Marketing and Trading (GMTS) failed to deliver some LNG cargoes following Western sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The company, either directly or through its affiliates, is “exploring the opportunity” to buy equity from an existing or post-commissioning proposed LNG plant or project in the U.S., it said in a Feb. 16 filing.
It did not say how much the Indian gas distributor had earmarked for a potential deal. “Furthermore, GAIL, directly or through any of its affiliates, is interested in taking 1 million tonnes of LNG per annum from the LNG liquefaction plant or freeboard project for a period of 15 years on mutually acceptable terms and conditions,” it said.
The document added that the contract period for LNG supplies can be mutually extended for another 5 or 10 years and that supplies are tentatively scheduled to start from the last quarter of 2026.
The last date for interested companies to submit their bids to GAIL is March 10, the document said. GAIL is seeking long-term gas import deals to replace its disrupted supplies and is in talks with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) and other parties to source gas to meet local demand, GAIL’s finance chief said in January.
GAIL signed a 20-year contract with GMTS in 2012 for annual purchases averaging 2.5 million tonnes of LNG.GMTS was a unit of Gazprom Germania, now called Sefe, but the parent company exited the business last April following Western sanctions.
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