India’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports decreased by 11.5 percent in December while the import bill rose by 19 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 December, compared to 2.56 bcm in the same month in 2021, PPAC said.
Also, December LNG imports dropped when compared to 2.32 bcm in November.
During the April-December period, India took 20.39 bcm of LNG, or some 15 million tonnes, down by 15.1 percent, PPAC said.
India paid $1.6 billion for December LNG imports, a rise of about 19 percent compared to $1.3 billion in 2021, while costs increased about 33.5 percent year-on-year to $14.3 billion in April-December.
As per India’s natural gas production, it rose by 1.9 percent to 2.95 bcm in December. Gas production increased by 0.8 percent in April-December to 25.86 bcm.
India’s monthly LNG imports have been constantly dropping last year due to mostly high spot prices.
However, Asian spot LNG prices dropped during this month. The JKM LNG price for March settled at $22.950 per mmBtu on Thursday.
At the moment, India imports LNG via six facilities with a combined capacity of about 42.7 million tonnes.
India’s Adani and France’s TotalEnergies have almost completed their 5 mtpa Dhamra LNG import facility located in Odisha, on India’s east coast.
Petronet LNG’s 17.5 mtpa Dahej terminal operated at 79.3 percent capacity while Shell’s 5 mtpa Hazira terminal operated at 43.9 percent capacity in April-November, PPAC said.