Norway’s Crown LNG to spend $1 billion on India Regas Terminal counting on mounting demand

Crown LNG will invest more than $1 billion in an Indian liquefied natural gas import terminal that it aims to open in 2028, the Norwegian company’s chief executive officer said.

Indian gas demand is strong and likely to keep growing, but it is currently limited by the need for affordable supplies, Swapan Kataria said in an interview in New Delhi. LNG is likely to become cheaper due to increases in global capacity through the end of the decade, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of raising the share of gas in India’s energy mix to 15% by 2030 from 6%, which has led to a frenzy of investments in infrastructure. Six out of the seven operational LNG import terminals currently running at less than half of their capacity, however, casting doubts on the viability of future projects. 

Crown’s planned 7.2 million tons LNG import terminal to be built in Kakinada, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, will be India’s second largest, according to government data. 

The firm is set to go public in the US via a merger with publicly traded Catcha Investment Corp., which will help it raise funds for its anchor projects in Kakinada and Grangemouth, in Scotland, Kataria said.

India’s LNG demand will hit 72.9 million tons a year by the end of the decade from an estimated 20.2 million tons last year, according to Bernstein analysts.