Data Insights

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term

LNG Contracts
Kaushik Deb and Rami Shabaneh

Instant Insight
December 1, 2019 KS--2019-II17
India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 1
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India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 2

 India may renegotiate its long-term LNG contracts
On August 26, 2019, India’s petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced that he would consider
“a review of liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices under [India’s] long-term contracts” (S&P Global Platts
2019). However, Mr. Pradhan did not lay out a timeline for the review and reiterated that existing contracts
would be honored. This is significant given the wide divergence between prices under long-term LNG
contracts and spot LNG prices in Asia since January 2019 (Figure 1). During the financial year 2018-19
(April 2018-March 2019), the average landed price for LNG in India was $11.30 per million British thermal
units (MMBtu), while the average spot price averaged $9.24/MMBtu (IHS Markit 2019). However, spot
prices have since dropped significantly. S&P Global Platts (2019) reported LNG cargo deliveries to Asia for
October 2019 averaged $4.41/MMBtu, compared with oil-indexed LNG prices to India which could range
between $7/MMBtu and $10/MMBtu depending on the terms of the contract (S&P Global Platts 2019).

Figure 1. India’s total import price versus spot prices.

20.00

18.00

16.00

14.00
LNG price ($/MMBtu)

12.00

10.00

8.00

6.00

4.00

2.00

0.00
Jan-12 Jul-12 Jan-13 Jul-13 Jan-14 Jul-14 Jan-15 Jul-15 Jan-16 Jul-16 Jan-17 Jul-17 Jan-18 Jul-18 Jan-19 Jul-19
India (Petronet) total import price India spot price
Source: IHS Markit.

This will not be the first time India has renegotiated its long-term LNG contracts. In 2015, Petronet LNG,
India’s largest LNG buyer, renegotiated its contracts with Qatar’s Rasgas to change the pricing formula,
after LNG spot prices dropped significantly below oil-indexed prices (Petronet LNG 2016). Unconfirmed
reports detailed the three elements of the renegotiation: a change in the period according to which the
price was calculated; a waiver of the penalty for not honoring the take-or-pay provisions of the contracts;
and an increase in the total volume of the contracts (Moneycontrol 2016).

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 3

In effect, Petronet agreed to take larger volumes of LNG from Rasgas at lower prices, thus ensuring Rasgas
maintained its revenues from the contracts. Petronet subsequently renegotiated its long-term agreement
with Gorgon LNG in Australia, resulting in Gorgon reducing the price of its LNG from 14.5% of the Japanese
customs cleared price of crude oil to 13.9%. This renegotiation also made Gorgon responsible for the
logistics and costs of shipping LNG from Australia to India (Livemint 2017).

The weakness in LNG prices has been critical to the growth of India’s gas sector. The low spot prices since
2015 and Petronet’s renegotiated prices with Rasgas allowed India to increase its LNG consumption from
14 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) in 2014-15 to 21.7 Mtpa in 2018-19, a growth of 55% over just four years
(Figure 2).

Figure 2. LNG imports into India.

25

20

15
Mtpa

10

0
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19
Financial year
Source: PPAC (2019).

New liquefaction capacity and weaker winter demand in 2018-19 contributed to lower spot prices (Timera
Energy 2019). New LNG plants with a capacity of 23 Mtpa have come online in the first eight months of
2019, mostly in the United States (U.S.). On the demand side, weaker economic conditions in Asia and the
on-going trade dispute between the U.S. and China have lowered demand growth for LNG. With another 25
Mtpa of LNG capacity expected to come online by 2021, spot prices are likely to remain under pressure. If
oil prices remain within the current range, the differential between spot LNG prices and LNG supplied under
long-term oil indexed contracts will also continue.

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 4

India’s existing import portfolio
India is currently the world’s fourth-largest importer of LNG, totaling 21.7 Mtpa in 2018-19. Its current LNG
import portfolio comprises LNG from Qatar (48%), Nigeria (13%), Angola (7%), Oman (5%) and the U.S.
(4%) (Figure 3). Spot purchases accounted for about half of India’s total imports in 2018, with imports
from Africa (dominated by imports from Nigeria and Angola) accounting for nearly 60% of its total spot
purchases.

Figure 3. LNG imports into India in 2018 (Mt).

Australia, 0.04
Qatar,
2.37 US, 0.97

Others, Australia, 1.44

Asia, 0.33 1.77

Contract volumes

Qatar, 8.50

Africa, 6.21

Europe, 0.86

Source: BP (2019).

Qatar is by far the largest of India’s currently contracted LNG suppliers. The three contracts between
Petronet LNG and Rasgas account for 8.5 Mtpa of India’s 12.84 Mtpa of long-term contracts. Petronet
also has a 20-year contract to import 1.44 Mtpa from Gorgon in Australia. Finally, GAIL, India’s
state-owned gas marketing and transmission company, currently has two contracts totaling 5.8 Mtpa with
U.S. LNG producers. One of these contracts is with Cheniere (Sabine Pass) for 2.9 Mtpa, and the other
contract is with Dominion Energy (Cove Point) for 2.3 Mtpa. However, these two contracts require GAIL
only to offtake the contracted volumes and not necessarily to bring them to India. As a result, instead of
shipping these cargoes from the U.S. to India, GAIL has resold some cargoes to other players, including
a resale agreement with Shell for 1 Mtpa. GAIL has also established other time swap agreements with
pure-play LNG traders. This resulted in less than 1 Mtpa of the total contracted volume of U.S. LNG being
delivered to India in 2018. Overall, GAIL has indicated that roughly 32-35 of the 85-90 contracted U.S.
LNG cargoes from Sabine Pass and Cove Point that it expects to offtake every year will go to India.

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 5

Table 1. Long-term LNG import contracts signed by Indian companies.

Assumed Quantity
From node Buyer Seller Export terminal Start duration (years) (Mtpa)

Qatar Petronet Rasgas II Rasgas II 2015 15 5

Qatar Petronet Rasgas III Rasgas I 2015 15 2

Qatar Petronet Rasgas III Rasgas II 2015 15 1.55

Australia Petronet Exxon Mobil Gorgon 2017 20 1.44

West

U.S. GAIL Cheniere Sabine Pass T3 2017 20 2.9

U.S. GAIL Dominion Cove Point 2018 21 2.3

U.S. IOC Mitsubishi Cameron 2019 20 0.7

Trading

Mozambique BPCL Anadarko JV Mozambique LNG 2025 15 1

Unspecified H-Energy Petronas 2019 3 0.36

Unspecified GAIL Gazprom 2021 20 2.60

M&T

Unspecified Shell Total 2019 5 0.53

Source: Nexant WGM (2018).

Note: BPCL = Bharat Petroleum Corporation; IOC = Indian Oil Corporation.

More long-term contracts are due to come into force over the next few years. They include contracts
between the Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, and between
Sempra Energy-promoted Cameron LNG and Anadarko-promoted Mozambique LNG. Finally, three other
contracts between LNG trading subsidiaries of Indian oil and gas companies to buy LNG are not origin
specific.

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 6

The role of long-term contracts in India’s LNG portfolio
Given the dominance of higher-priced LNG supplies from long-term contracts in India’s import portfolio,
there is pressure on the government to renegotiate these contracts so that these higher prices are
brought in line with the, now lower, spot prices. Since the price differential between LNG prices based
on these oil indexed long-term contracts and spot LNG prices has persisted since January 2019, and
is likely to continue and perhaps increase over the next few months, the push to renegotiate the pricing
conditions under these contracts should also continue. This insight uses the World Gas Model (WGM) to
assess the importance of long-term contracts in India’s LNG import regime. The WGM is a multi-period
complementarity model for the global natural gas market (Egging, Holz and Gabriel 2010). It optimizes
over producers, traders, pipeline and storage operators, liquifiers and regasifiers as well as marketers.

If the current set of long-term contracts were to continue under a business as usual (BAU) scenario,
India’s optimal LNG portfolio in 2020 would comprise imports from Qatar (58%), the U.S. (29%), Australia
(6%) and other Middle Eastern countries (6%) (Figure 4). By 2025, the share of Qatar in such an optimal
portfolio would increase to 70%, with the share of the U.S. falling to 19% and that of Australia declining to
4%, even though contractual volumes would be maintained.

Figure 4. India’s optimal LNG import mix with existing long-term contracts.

30 10

20 9
$/MMBtu
Mtpa

10 8

0 7
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Qatar Australia U.S.

Other Middle East Others Average import price

Source: WGM run by KAPSARC.

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 7

If India did not have any operational long-term LNG supply agreements going forward, then all future gas
imports would be contracted through the spot market. LNG importers would then be free to optimize their
imports, choosing only the cheapest suppliers. These suppliers would likely be geographically closer to
India, thus also reducing shipping costs. Assuming away the long-term supply agreements with Qatar,
Australia, and the U.S., the import portfolio becomes regional and is met by suppliers from the Middle East,
overwhelmingly dominated by Qatar (Figure 5). More significantly, in this scenario, the average import price
of LNG between 2020 and 2025 falls by $1.7/MMbtu, resulting in cumulative savings of nearly $15 billion
between 2020-25.

Figure 5. India’s optimal import portfolio without long-term contracts from 2020.

30 10

20
8

$/MMBtu
Mtpa

7
10

0 5
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Qatar Australia U.S.

Other Middle East Others Average import price

Source: WGM run by KAPSARC.

However, without these long-term agreements, suppliers would be under no obligation to make LNG
available to India and would likely reallocate sales to the highest bidders in the spot market. In particular,
once the current spurt in LNG supply peters out, and the market tightens again by the mid-2020s, India
would be crowded out of global LNG markets. This would limit its ability to import LNG and would result in
lower domestic consumption. The impact of this squeeze in supply would be most strongly felt in the two
largest and most price sensitive consuming sectors of natural gas in India, industry and power (Figure 6).

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 8

India’s total gas consumption would fall by an average of 0.7 Mtpa during 2020-25 due to lower supplies
from LNG imports.

Figure 6. Change in India’s natural gas consumption due to lower supply.

0.5

0.0

-0.5

-1.0
Mt

-1.5

-2.0

-2.5

-3.0
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Power Industry

Source: WGM run by KAPSARC.

Conclusion

It is clear that a large part of India’s LNG import portfolio relies on long-term contracts. India continues
to highlight the need for a weaker price regime in these contracts (Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas
2019). While a move away from such contracts would result in India being able to source LNG supplies
more cheaply, potentially saving US$15 billion between 2020-25, it would also result in a fall in gas
supplies to India, as LNG suppliers would not be bound by long-term contracts. The decline in LNG
supplies would hit the largest natural gas consuming sectors in India the most, namely industry and
power. Thus, the loss in committed gas supplies must be weighed against the overall fall in import costs
for gas.

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 9

References
BP. 2019. “BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2019.” 68th edition. London: BP.

IHS Markit. 2019. “India Natural Gas Market Profile.” IHS Markit, August.

Livemint. 2017. “The gains from the Gorgon LNG contract renegotiation.” September 14. Accessed
September 2, 2019. https://www.livemint.com/Money/MpJAxVSQwMExq5KmfpYGJL/The-gains-from-the-
Gorgon-LNG-contract-renegotiation.html.

Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. 2019. “Shri Dharmendra Pradhan meets Australian Minister for
Resources and Northern Australia, Senator Matthew Canavan.” August 28. Accessed September 2, 2019.
https://www.pib.nic.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1583257.

Moneycontrol. 2016. “No ʽtake or pay’ clause in new contract with RasGas: Petronet.” January 6.
Accessed September 2, 2019. https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/companies/no-take-or-pay-
clausenew-contractrasgas-petronet-1052052.html.

Nexant WGM. 2018. “World Gas Model.” Nexant. https://www.nexantsubscriptions.com/program/

world-gas-model.

Petronet LNG. 2016. “Re-negotiated Qatar gas deal giving daily gain of $5/MMBtu.” January 5. Accessed
September 2, 2019. https://www.petronetlng.com/NewsContent.php?newsid=425.

Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC). 2019. “Import of LNG.” August 27. Accessed September 2,
2019. https://www.ppac.gov.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/file/NG-H-LNG%20Import.xls.

Ruud Egging, Franziska Holz and Steven A. Gabriel. 2010. “The World Gas Model: A multi-period mixed
complementarity model for the global natural gas market.” Energy 35 (10): 4016-4029. doi:https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.energy.2010.03.053.

S&P Global Platts. 2019. “Commodities.” September 2. Accessed September 2, 2019. https://www.
spglobal.com/platts/en/commodities/lng.

———. 2019. “Indian oil minister hints at long-term LNG contract price review.” August 27.
Accessed August 28, 2019. https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/
natural-gas/082719-indian-oil-minister-hints-at-long-term-lng-contract-price-review.

Timera Energy. 2019. “Asian LNG demand stalls in H1 2019.” August 26. Accessed August 28, 2019.
https://timera-energy.com/asian-lng-demand-stalls-in-h1-2019/.

India’s Push to Renegotiate Long-Term LNG Contracts 10

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