With eye on all-electric car fleet, India begins massive LNG import from Russia

New Delhi: Government's electric vehicles push may gain fresh momentum on the back of the import of its first ever LNG from Russia.

Narendra Taneja, spokesman for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had in February said at an industry conference in Bali, Indonesia that India would eventually require even more than 15 terminals to meet its demand, news agency Reuters had reported.

Taneja had said that India plans to electrify millions of households that still burn wood for light, heat and cooking. Like China, it also plans to reduce its heavy reliance on thermal coal, a bigger polluter than gas. He said the gas would also be needed to provide power to electric vehicles, which India plans to account for all new car sales by 2030.

After the US, Russia on Wednesday began supplying LNG to India under a long-term deal as world's fourth-largest buyer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) diversifies import basket to meet its vast energy needs.

LNG carrier 'LNG Kano', carrying a cargo from Russian supplier Gazprom, docked at Petronet LNG's import facility here this morning, officials said. Gazprom supplied the 3.4 trillion British thermal unit (TBtu) of cargo from Nigeria.

India is dependent on imports to meet 45 per cent of its gas needs. Beginning of supplies from Russia comes within weeks of India importing its first ever LNG cargo from the US under a long-term import deal.

Stating that government is committed towards transforming India into a gas-based economy, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said investments are being made for augmenting natural gas infrastructure.

In the last few years, Indian companies have made investment of more than USD 10 billion in acquiring varying stakes in strategic Russian projects including Sakhalin-1, Vankorneft and Taas-Yuryakh.

On the other hand, Russian company-led consortium has committed an investment of USD 13 billion in Essar Oil in 2016.

GAIL has renegotiated with Russian supplier Gazprom the terms of the 20-year deal to import 2.5 million tonnes a year of LNG. Both price and volume ramp up have been renegotiated.

With PTI Inputs