NEW DELHI: Petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said the government is hopeful that Russia’s Gazprom deal with the state-run Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) (India) to supply Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will be sorted out soon.
The minister while addressing the press at the world LPG day also said, “India can’t be pressurised, we will purchase oil from wherever available at a reasonable price. Both the parties are discussing this issue (Gazprom and GAIL deal). I hope it will be resolved soon,” said Puri.
Gazprom’s former subsidiary Gazprom Marketing and Trading Singapore (GMTS) signed an agreement with GAIL to supply 2.5 million tonnes (MT) of LNG per annum for 20 years starting 2018-19. However, following the Ukraine and Russia war, Gazprom stopped supply.
The reason being, Germany seized control of Gazprom Germania in April 2022. Following this, GAIL reported a 46 per cent dip in net profit during the second quarter (July-September 2022). Its net profit stood at Rs 1,537.07 crore in Q2FY23 as compared to Rs 2,862.95 crore in the same period a year ago. The profit was sequentially down 47.2 per cent from Rs 2,915.19 crore reported for the April-June quarter.