GAIL assesses supplies as war hits imports

India’s city gas distribution and fertiliser sectors will continue to get natural gas on priority even as state-run GAIL India on Thursday said it is assessing to curtail fuel supplies to its customers after about 30% of India’s liquefied natural gas imports have been halted because of the war in West Asia, people aware of the development said.

- Rajeev Jayaswal

India imports about half of its natural gas requirements and meets the rest with output from domestic gas fields.

The situation may warrant re-prioritising of gas supplies to other sectors, they said requesting anonymity. There is enough gas coming from domestic fields and long-term supply contracts with producers in the US, Australia and Russia. Fuel is more than sufficient for fertiliser and retail consumers of the city gas distribution (CGD) sectors, they said. CGD has two components; compressed natural gas (CNG) used in automobiles and piped natural gas (PNG) mainly used in households for cooking and also as an industrial fuel.

The escalation of war completely stopped natural gas shipments from Qatar affecting Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL). Evoking the force majeure clause on March 3, it informed GAIL its inability to honour the long-term supply contract. “Consequently, due to supply restric-