Adnoc Expands LNG Sales With 15-Year India Supply Deal

The biggest oil producer in the United Arab Emirates agreed to supply liquefied natural gas to Indian Oil Corp for 15 years as it lines up more binding contracts for a new export terminal.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co will provide 1mn tonnes of LNG annually to the Indian state-run entity, primarily from the under-construction project at Ruwais, according to a statement Wednesday.

Adnoc, which had signed a preliminary agreement in September, also has a deal to supply an additional 1.2mn tonnes a year of the fuel from its Das Island operations to Indian Oil.

The two deals will make the Indian company Adnoc’s biggest LNG customer by 2029, said the UAE firm, which is locking in long-term customers for its export capacity following agreements with buyers from Germany to Malaysia. 

For India, the deals will help its plan to ramp up the share of gas in the country’s energy mix by the end of this decade, even though infrastructure bottlenecks are constraining the expansion.

The Ruwais project is expected to start commercial operations in 2028, which will more than double the company’s LNG capacity to 15 million tons a year, Adnoc said.

The company has committed over 8mn tonnes a year of the project’s 9.6mn-tonnes-a-year capacity to international customers through long-term agreements.

Adnoc Gas Plc said last year that it expects to acquire its parent Adnoc’s 60% stake in the Ruwais project at cost in the second half of 2028.