Russia has said that liquified gas supplies to the South Asian country could increase despite sanctions
Russia is increasing liquefied natural gas production and exports despite sanctions and could expand shipments to India, First Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin told RT at India Energy Week in New Delhi. He stated that Moscow’s biggest crude oil buyer could become a major market for LNG.
India’s primary LNG suppliers are currently Qatar and the US, which together meet about 50% of its demand. However, the country’s natural gas consumption is expected to rise by 60% between 2023 and 2030, doubling its LNG import needs, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“India is one of the furthest points for our LNG. Previously, we didn’t have spare LNG to contract with Indian partners, but this is changing. We are expanding in the LNG market, launching new projects, and hope India will become a major trading partner in this space,” Sorokin said.
He emphasized that Russia offers “competitive pricing” and will continue trading with its partners despite mounting sanctions from Washington and its allies. “We are ready to compete in a free market, as long as it’s not accompanied by illegal measures such as sanctions,” he noted.
India currently has seven LNG import terminals with a total capacity of about 47.7 million metric tons per year. The IEA suggests that surging demand will necessitate additional import capacity in the latter half of the decade.
Russia, one of the world’s largest gas exporters, shipped a record 33.6 million metric tons of LNG last year, over half of which went to the EU, according to analytics firm Kpler. In December, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Rossiya-24 that Russia has “big projects ahead.”“New volumes are being built, and LNG supplies go to both European and Asian countries,” he said.
While the EU bans Russian coal, seaborne crude oil, and refined oil products, it has not imposed direct sanctions on gas and LNG due to its reliance on the fuel. However, the US has sanctioned Russia’s major LNG producer, Novatek, and its Arctic LNG 2 project, which was expected to produce nearly 19.8 million metric tons of LNG annually, mainly for Asian markets.
In January, the US sanctioned two Indian entities for allegedly supporting Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project.
Washington, at the same time, has been pushing India to increase imports of both LNG and oil to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries. The same pitch was made by US President Donald Trump on Thursday when he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said: “I think we purchased about $15 billion in US energy output. There is a good chance that this figure will go up as much as $25 billion.”
