India’s LNG imports dropped for the fifth straight month in October when compared to the year before, while prices continued to increase.
Data from the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell shows that LNG imports declined by 21.6 percent to 2.70 billion cubic meters or about 1.96 million tonnes in October.
Compared to the previous month, LNG imports rose by about 2.3 percent.
Total LNG imports in the April-October period decreased by 3.6 percent to 18.91 bcm or about 13.71 million tonnes.
On the other side, natural gas production in October increased by 24.7 percent to 3.01 bcm while it rose 21.6 percent in the April-October period to 19.90 bcm.
One of the reasons behind India’s lower LNG imports is probably the high spot price which still trades above $30/MMBtu, prompting Indian buyers to hold off on buying spot volumes. The JKM spot LNG price surged to $56.326/MMBtu last month.
The data from PPAC said India has paid $0.9 billion for October LNG imports, compared to $0.7 billion last year.
At the moment, India imports LNG via six facilities with a combined capacity of 42.5 million tonnes.
Petronet LNG’s 17.5 mtpa Dahej terminal operated at 92.2 percent capacity while Shell’s 5 mtpa Hazira terminal operated at 73.8 percent capacity in April-September, the PPAC data shows