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that in a bid to diversify portfolio, state owned gas utility GAIL India Limited has imported its first shipload of LNG at rival Royal Dutch Shell's Hazira terminal in Gujarat. GAIL, which part owns Petronet LNG that operates 10 million tonne Dahej terminal in Gujarat and operates 5 million tonne a year capacity Dabhol plant in Maharashtra, last weekend imported a cargo of liquefied natural gas at Hazira. The company previously imported all the LNG it bought from overseas either at Dahej or at Dabhol. A top GAIL official said that "We couldn't import at Dahej since it was facing haulage problem so we decided to use Haziraterminal."

This is the first time since India started importing LNG in January 2004 that GAIL, the nation's largest gas marketing and transmission firm, has used a privately operated terminal for imports. The cargo imported a Hazira came from French energy giant GDF Suez which whom GAIL had in 2012 signed a term contract to buy 0.8 million tonne of LNG. Official said that "If our customers need gas, we are open to using Hazira more often.”

He said that GAIL is also talking to Shell for buying LNG on a short term contract. The talks are still on but nothing has been finalised. The company is aggressively scouting for LNG the world over to meet the nation's growing gas demand, which is expected to grow from 58 billion cubic metres in 2012 to 220 billion cubic metres in 2020, representing a compounded annual growth rate of over 18 Percent.

It had in August 2012 signed a contract with GDF botbuy 12 cargoes or shiploads from2013 to 2014. GDF supplied 6 cargoes of LNG in 2013 beginning January and an equal number are to come in 2014. It supplies one cargo once in two months, most probably from its Yemen portfolio. The price of LNG would be linked to prevailing oil rates. GAIL had previously roped in GDF Suez for a 3.5 million tonnes a year floating LNG import terminal it plans to setup off the east coast. The French firm would have 26 Percent stake in the project.

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