Three companies compete for Indian gas company GAIL's tender of US LNG project

Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Chairman of GAIL India, said that three companies were competing to acquire up to 26% in a "liquefied gas project" in the United States.

GAIL published a tender last year to purchase up to 26% of an LNG project in America, in conjunction with a 15-year deal for gas imports.

India's largest distributor of gas invited companies to submit initial bids as it looks to purchase equity in a?existing LNG project or a brand new project, which would be completed by 2030.

Qatar is India's largest LNG supplier, and the United States is their second-largest supplier.

GAIL, the state-run company, wants to buy 1 million tons of LNG annually from a U.S. facility on a "free-on-board" basis for a period of 15 years. The deal can be extended up to a further five or ten years.

India is the world's fourth largest LNG importer. It aims to increase its gas share in its energy mix from 6% to 15% by 2030.

Gupta, speaking at the India Energy Week conference, said that as prices "normalise", more?supplies will likely come onto the market.

He said that the supply was not an issue, since more volumes were coming from Argentina, Canada and Alaska. (Reporting and writing by Nidhi verma, editing by Sonia Cheema).

(source: Reuters)