Thaindian News

Gandhinagar, Jan 11 (IANS) Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd (GM&T) and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPC) have concluded an agreement for the sale and purchase of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), officials said Tuesday. Under the agreement, GM&T (via its wholly-owned affiliate Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore Pte. Ltd) will sell to GSPC about 0.3 million tonnes of LNG over a two-year period. The LNG will be sourced from GM&T’s diversified portfolio, with the first delivery planned for second half of 2011, an official release said here.

Tapan Ray, managing director of GSPC, said: “In order to ensure availability of sufficient quantities of gas, commensurate to India’s growth story, it is becoming important for companies like GSPC to secure LNG.”

Russia is an important source for import of LNG and GSPC’s transaction with a global major like Gazprom will help GSPC in meeting the growing demand of gas in the near term, he added.

“This is a significant step towards strengthening ties between GSPC and Gazprom and ensuring long term LNG supplies,” Ray said.

Frederic Barnaud, executive director of Gazprom Marketing & Trading said: “India is a strategic market for us. We believe this transaction will provide further momentum for progressing long-term LNG supplies to India.”

Gazprom Marketing & Trading is a wholly owned subsidiary of OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest gas company by asset base, accounting for 17 percent of the world’s total natural gas reserves and for about 70 percent of natural gas reserves in Russia. It was formed in 1999 to establish a marketing and trading platform for Gazprom in Britain and Western Europe.

It has been active in the LNG market since 2005 and now trades LNG through its wholly-owned affiliates Gazprom Global LNG Ltd and Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore Pte. Ltd.