By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - GAIL (India) Ltd is scouting for long-term gas import deals and hopes to sign one
contract shortly to make up for disrupted supplies from a former
unit of Russian energy giant Gazprom, its head of finance said
on Monday.
India's largest gas distributor reported a 93% decline in
its December quarter net profit as it transmitted less gas
locally due to a reduction in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply
from a deal with Gazprom Marketing and Singapore (GMTS).
GAIL is in talks with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) and
many other parties to source gas. "Probably we will get a better
deal," Rakesh Kumar Jain told an analyst call.
"The Indian economy is needing more and more gas. Even if
GMTS had not happened, we were in the market for sourcing gas.
Yes, but GMTS circumstances have forced us more," he said.
GAIL agreed a 20-year deal with GMTS in 2012 to buy an
annual average of 2.5 million tonnes of LNG.
At the time, GMTS was a unit of Gazprom Germania, now called
Sefe, but the Russian parent gave up ownership of Sefe after
Western sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sefe has
halted supply to GAIL since May.
Jain said GAIL was seeking more gas import deals primarily
to meet local demand and a resumption of supplies under the
Gazprom contract would give his company the flexibility "to able
to play more in the international markets".
The state-run company has been trading some of the LNG
bought on a free-on-board basis under its long-term deals from
the United States in global markets.
Jain said in 2023 GAIL would bring in eight extra LNG
cargoes from its U.S. portfolio, which were previously sold to a
global customer. "We get 90 cargoes from the USA and we intend
to bring all of them to India," Jain said.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma
Editing by Mark Potter)
Messaging: nidhi.verma.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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