Shell to Receive Three Spot LNG Cargoes at India's Hazira

By Dinakar Sethuraman

July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc will receive three liquefied natural gas cargoes at its import terminal in India this week and next, according to transmissions from ships captured by AISLive on Bloomberg.

Leif Hoegh Group's Arctic Lady, a 147,835 cubic-meter capacity tanker, will reach Hazira terminal tomorrow, carrying a cargo from Norway, according to the data. Total SA is a partner in Norway's Snohvit terminal and in Hazira.

Methane Shirley Elisabeth, a 145,000 cubic-meter capacity tanker, is transporting a cargo from Egypt and may have reached the west coast terminal on July 28, according to the data.

Seri Alam, a 145,572 cubic-meter gas tanker belonging to MISC Bhd. may reach Hazira on Aug. 8, carrying a Nigerian cargo. Shell and Total are partners in Nigeria LNG and the Indian import terminal.

Indian power producers and manufacturers are turning to imported gas because output from aging fields has failed to keep pace with demand growth. Rising crude prices, which reached a record $147.27 on July 11, have increased the price of naphtha and fuel oil, forcing power plants and industries to burn gas.

India may have paid as much as $20 per million British thermal units for a spot cargo this month, Nick Davies, chief executive officer of Brisbane-based Arrow Energy Ltd., said at a conference in Singapore on July 29.

Shell's 74 percent-owned Hazira terminal buys all of its LNG from the spot market, Jon Chadwick, executive vice president of Shell Gas & Power in Asia, said in November. The company is expanding the 2.5 million metric tons-a-year facility to add 1 million tons, Vikram Mehta, chairman of Shell India Ltd., said this year. Total owns the remaining 26 percent.

A spot LNG cargo typically weighs between 55,000 and 60,000 tons. LNG is natural gas chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume at minus 161 degrees Celsius (minus 258 degrees Fahrenheit) for transportation by ships to destinations not connected by pipeline. It is turned back into gas for distribution to users.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at dinakar@bloomberg.net