By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – GAIL (India) is seeking long-term import deals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) amounting to 5.5 million tons per year, raising its capacity to 21 mln tons per year by 2030, finance chief Rakesh Kumar Jain said on Wednesday.
The country’s largest gas pipeline utility has deals for supply of 15.53 million ton of LNG per year, having recently signed supply deals with trader Vitol and Adnoc.
The state-run company plans to raise loans of 40 billion rupees ($475.9 million) in this financial year to fund its pipeline network expansion and boost petrochemicals capacity, Jain said.
The company has not raised a foreign currency loan since 2016-17.
GAIL would consider raising the debt from foreign markets if that proves cheaper than rupee-denominated loans, Jain added.
($1 = 84.0550 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by David Goodman)
