Two sources familiar with the matter said that India is pressuring Qatar for the delayed 58 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) amid India’s worst power crisis in five years.
Last week, India’s Oil Ministry wrote a letter seeking the delivery of 50 of the cargoes. According to the sources, supplier Qatargas has disruptions in supply due to infrastructure maintenance.
Other than that, India also finds eight additional LNG cargoes which were delayed in 2020 at New Delhi’s request following the slump in demand amid the coronavirus lockdowns.
This was in contrast with the situation in August when Indian customers began delayed imports of spot LNG due to high prices.
Under those long-term deals, LNG costs around USD11-12/mmBtu compared to USD38/mmBtu on current Asia’s spot gas market. Earlier in October, it hit USD56/mmBtu.
According to India’s Petronet LNG CEO A.K. Singh, the Indian power sector reduces its intake of LNG once prices rise above about USD10/mmBtu.
The country has 24 GW of gas-fired power generation capacity. 14 GW of it has been stranded for more than 10 years due to the non-availability of gas. Meanwhile, the remaining plants are operating at very low capacity.
