Hard-pressed Adani turns to GAIL for R-LNG
Adani Gas is talking to GAIL to source R-LNG for its Ahmedabad and Vadodara city gas networks following a dispute with GSPC.
Adani currently receives up to 1.35m cm/d spot R-LNG from Petronet-LNG’s Dahej terminal, supplied by GSPC. But it is thinking of replacing these supplies with gas sourced instead through GAIL, the largest R-LNG off-taker from Dahej.
“We’re talking to Adani,” confirms GAIL. “But they find our asking price of $17/mmbtu too high.
” When contacted, Adani confirms it is talking to GAIL for R-LNG but refuses to divulge the quantity under discussion. Adani has been looking for alternative R-LNG sources since December 31 when it received an angry letter from GSPC, its sole supplier.
"We wrote to Adani telling them to look for other R-LNG sources as every time they increase their retail gas selling price they blame us,” explains GSPC. “Neither (Gujarat chief minister Narendra) Modi nor (energy minister Saurabh) Patel likes this as it leads to bad local press for (state-owned) GSPC (as elections loom near).
So we want to break it off with Adani.” Our source adds that GSPC has yet to cut supplies to Adani, nor has it given the privately-owned company a set timeframe within which to find another supplier.
Adani has ruled out becoming a direct LNG importer like GSPC. “Our small gas needs don’t justify such a move,” we learn.
“A standard-sized LNG tanker carries enough LNG to supply 80m cubic metres of R-LNG – much more than we need! It would take us 80 days to use all that gas. Where would we store it” Adani might also consider seeking R-LNG from IndianOil, another major Dahej off-taker.
