(TOI)
State-run gas utility GAIL is betting big on swap deals to keep the cost of liquid gas, imported under contracts signed during times of high global prices, competitive in the Indian market. The company has swapped more than 60% of liquid gas volumes it had contracted from the US with cheaper supplies to avoid potential losses from recent drop in prices, as reported first by TOI on July 18.
“In all 3.5 million tonne of LNG (liquefied natural gas) has been swapped… Innovative contracting structures… time- and destination-swap deals… have been executed as measures to market LNG volumes,” GAIL chairman B C Tripathi told shareholders on Tuesday. These deals add a new element to India’s energy trade, which is predominantly based on buying oil and gas or exporting products under term contracts or through spot deals. At home, GAIL had in 2011 entered into a gas swap deal with Reliance Industries for helping power plants in Andhra Pradesh.
