BP, RIL Set to Start LNG Marketing in India

Reliance Industries is set to start its natural gas marketing venture, India Gas Solutions, equal joint venture between RIL and BP. India Gas Solutions will source and market natural gas in India and will bring in LNG through the terminals of Shell India and Petronet LNG.

RIL executives told Business Standard that the company was in talks to book capacity at Shell Hazira Gas Private Ltd, a joint venture between Anglo-Dutch energy company Shell and France’s Total, and Petronet LNG’s Dahej terminal.

“We are in talks with various LNG terminal operators to book exclusive capacity at the existing LNG terminals. We want to get capacity and bring in gas to market. We would be paying them toll charges,” said an RIL executive.

The booked capacity at these terminals could be anywhere between two and three million tonnes per annum, depending on what the terminals will have on offer, Business Standard said.

The RIL and BP has set up India Gas Solutions in November last year.

The interest of these companies in LNG import is evident from the fact that India had, till January 2012, registered an 89.5 per cent increase in LNG import.