India to Seek Special Status from US for LNG Imports

India would seek a special status from the US for supply of LNG when President Obama visits New Delhi later this month, reported Indian Express newspaper.

According to the newspaper, a draft note on India-US Cooperation in Oil and Gas Sector emphasises that New Delhi must seek support from Washington for sourcing LNG from the US in the form of “a special status to India (outside the non-FTA category) that will benefit meeting the energy requirement in India”.

In case President Obama does not agree to that, Plan B is to seek “special exceptions” for facilitating LNG exports to India from all export projects that have free trade agreement (FTA) licenses, reported Indian Express.

So far, GAIL India has got project-specific waiver for two deals to buy 3.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Cheniere Energy and another 2.3 MTPA at Dominion Energy’s Cove Point liquefaction plant.