India imported 810,000 mt of LNG in April, up 24% from 651,000 mt in the corresponding month last year but down 13% compared with March imports of 933,000 mt, official data published by the Indian oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell showed Wednesday.
LNG imports have been higher year-on-year for three months running as natural gas production from Reliance Industries' prolific eastern offshore KG-D6 block have been lower.
Reliance said earlier this month that KG-D6's average output in the January-March quarter was 51 million cu m/d, down from 54.5 million cu m/d in the October-December quarter and from 60 million cu m/d a year earlier.
All of the April LNG were through Petronet LNG's Dahej terminal in Gujarat, which can process up to 11.5 million mt/year. Shell's Hazira terminal reported no imports during the month, an official said.
While Petronet LNG's import figures for May are not available yet the Hazira terminal has already reported no imports for the second month in a row, he added.
Earlier in April the company said it has executed short-term contracts for an additional 1.5 million mt/year of LNG for financial years 2011-12 and 2012-13 (April to March) from various sources.
Gujarat State Petroleum Corp., owned by the government of Gujarat, earlier this month said it had entered into a deal early this year with Russia's Gazprom for supply of 300,000 mt/year of LNG for two years.
India's overall natural gas consumption in April including regasified LNG was 4.740 billion cubic meters, down from 4.765 Bcm in April last year and from 5.014 Bcm in March this year.
