India Seeks to Rework More LNG Contracts Amid Surplus, GAIL Says

(Bloomberg) -- India is pushing to renegotiate more liquefied natural gas deals after its success in reaching agreements with some of the world’s largest energy suppliers.

GAIL India Ltd., the nation’s biggest gas utility, is working toward renegotiating two more long-term deals, according to the company’s chairman. Those would follow new deals with  Qatar’s RasGas Co. in 2015 and  Exxon Mobil Corp. last month that saw the Indian buyer get  lower prices in exchange for agreeing to purchase higher volumes.

“We have successfully renegotiated along with Petronet two long-term contracts,” Chairman B.C. Tripathi said in New Delhi on Wednesday. “We are now working on a third and fourth contract. This is how the market structure has changed. We are moving from a supply-constraint market to a supply-surplus market,” he said.

Tripathi declined to provide details Wednesday on the two contracts the company is now seeking to amend. GAIL has said earlier it is renegotiating its 20-year contract with Russia’s Gazprom PJSC. It also has agreements with Cheniere Energy Inc. and Dominion Energy Inc. in the U.S.

India, the world’s fourth-largest LNG buyer, is increasingly relying on imports as it seeks to double use of the fuel by the end of decade amid falling domestic production. A global glut of LNG has emboldened buyers like India to seek more favorable deals for contracts signed several years ago.

To contact the reporters on this story: Debjit Chakraborty in New Delhi at dchakrabor10@bloomberg.net; Saket Sundria in Mumbai at ssundria@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net; Pratish Narayanan at pnarayanan9@bloomberg.net Alpana Sarma, Abhay Singh.