State gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd said on Friday that it has sold out the entire quantity of the first ever LNG spot cargo bought from Algeria.
"The liquefied natural gas, equivalent to 80 million standard cubic metres of natural gas, was sold to consumers such as National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC), Delhi Vidyut Board, Birla Copper and some others," a company release said.
The first spot cargo of LNG from Sonatrach, Algeria was received on May 20 at Dahej in Gujarat.
"In April 2004, GAIL created history in the gas sector by selling re-gasified LNG for the first time in India... Two years later in June 2006, GAIL has now once again achieved a milestone by selling the first internationally trade spot cargo of LNG," GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Proshanto Banerjee said.
The release, however, did not indicate the price at which the gas was sold.
"With this successful marketing of spot LNG, the domestic gas market is aligned with the global gas market. Going forward, GAIL is in discussion with major suppliers for bringing more LNG cargoes from South East Asia, Middle East and North Africa," the release added.
Company sources said, GAIL contracted one spot cargo from Sonatrach of Algeria at an ex-ship price of $9.28 per million British thermal unit (mBtu). It paid $0.45 per mBtu import tariff, 0.01 dollars education cess and $0.53 per mBtu to Petronet LNG for re-gassification, bringing the final cost of re-gassified LNG to over 10 dollars per mBtu.
{{/usCountry}}Company sources said, GAIL contracted one spot cargo from Sonatrach of Algeria at an ex-ship price of $9.28 per million British thermal unit (mBtu). It paid $0.45 per mBtu import tariff, 0.01 dollars education cess and $0.53 per mBtu to Petronet LNG for re-gassification, bringing the final cost of re-gassified LNG to over 10 dollars per mBtu.
{{/usCountry}}Shell's R-LNG was sold at $9.07 per mBtu (while taxes remained the same, regassification cost at Hazira pegged at $0.67 per mBtu) to Essar and Gujarat State Petroleum.
Essar bought 30 per cent of the 135,000 standard cubic metres cargo of Shell and GSPC the rest.
GAIL was in talks with Abu Dhabi, Oman and Malaysia for more spot cargoes and deals were expected to materialise in second half of this year.