India’s largest liquefied natural gas importer Petronet LNG has set up a new unit in Singapore to trade LNG and secure better deals.
Petronet said in a statement it has formed the new unit, Petronet LNG Singapore, on March 7.
According to Petronet, the new firm would carry out business/activities, including but not limited to purchase of LNG on long, spot and short-term basis and sale of LNG, and trading of LNG to Indian and foreign companies.
In addition, the firm would carry out optimization and diversion of LNG under its portfolio, hedging, purchase of LNG under LNG SPAs, sale of LNG to customers, and investments in overseas ventures, Petronet said.
The directors of the new company include Petronet’s CEO Akshay Kumar Singh, finance chief Vinod Kumar Mishra, technical director Pramod Narang, and Goh Poh Kee, nominee resident director from Singapore.
Petronet did not provide any additional information.
The company operates the 17.5 mtpa Dahej terminal and the 5 mtpa Kochi plant on the west coast of India.
Besides these two terminals, Petronet is working on a new FSRU-based import facility at the Gopalpur port in Odisha as it looks to establish its presence on the eastern coast of the country.
India’s LNG imports dropped about 3.2 percent to 26.78 bcm in the April-January period, according to PPAC data. The country paid $9.9 billion for these supplies, a big rise when compared to $6.2 billion in the year before.
Petronet and other Indian buyers are holding off on buying spot volumes due to sky-high Asian LNG prices which recently hit a new record. The JKM spot LNG price surged to $59.672/MMBtu last Thursday on concern over tight supply due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.