(LiveMint)
India has renegotiated the pricing of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported from Australia’s Gorgon project to make the imported fuel affordable to price-sensitive domestic customers, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday.
India has been trying to leverage its position as one of the biggest energy consumers to strike better bargains for its companies. In 2015 it renegotiated the LNG pricing formula with Qatar’s Rasgas to buy the gas at half the original price.
“Indian customers will receive (Gorgon) LNG volumes at an amicable price soon. This is done in a similar way to what we did with LNG from Qatar,” Pradhan said in a tweet. India’s top gas importer Petronet LNG signed a deal in 2009 with Exxon Mobil Corp. to buy 1.5 million tonnes of LNG annually from Gorgon for 20 years. At that time, Petronet agreed to buy LNG at a cost equivalent to 14.5% of the oil price and to pay for the shipping freight as well.
