Regional LNG: Shell to import LNG to India's Hazira port

Close on the heels of Petronet LNG, the consortium of public sector oil majors, shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to India, multinational Shell will begin import of LNG from multiple sources early next year. Shell will import from Oman, Qatar, Malaysia and Australia, India's Financial Express daily reported Tuesday.

Speaking at the Fourth Annual Conference on Gas in India here on Tuesday, Shell India Gas and Power director Marc Den Hartog said, ?Our port at Hazira in Gujarat is almost ready and we would start work of commissioning LNG facilities in December this year.?

He said, ?We plan to source natural gas in liquefied form in chartered ships at Hazira port and sell it after regassifying it to power, fertilizer and other industrial consumers from early next year.?

Unlike conventional LNG projects, Shell will not have a firm LNG supply source for Hazira, but will redirect to India surplus cargoes from liquefication projects it and its partner Total of France have in Middle East and South East Asia.

Total of France, which has 26 per cent stake in the 2.5 million tonne per annum at Hazira LNG project, has equity in a liquefication plant in Qatar, and Shell and Total of Fran ce are stakeholders in a plant in Oman. Shell has equity in Malaysia and Australia.

Abu Dhabi and Indonesia are also potential LNG suppliers. ?All these projects have surplus LNG and we can import it for Hazira,? he said.

Hazira is being designed to handle 5 million tonne per annum of LNG. But the capacity will be expanded to 10 million toone per annum in the future.

?Contracts for the sale of regassified LNG are now being matured and we intend to secure the first Hazira customers shortly,? Hartog said.(*)