Russia in talks with Indian firms for gas supply; May consider payment in Rupees - Report

India and Russia are close to concluding a major deal on gas supply. Novatek, Russia's largest liquified natural gas producer, is in talks with state-run GAIL for supply of LNG. Novatek could consider taking payments in rupees. GAIL agreed to a 20-year deal with GMTS in 2012 for annual purchases of an average of 2.5 million tonnes of LNG on a delivered basis. At the time, GMTS was a unit of Gazprom Germania, now called Sefe, but the Russian parent gave up ownership of Sefe after Western sanctions. GAIL, India's largest gas distributor, rationed gas supplies and cut runs after supplies under the GMTS deal were halted.