At least 10 global energy majors—including Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) Gas, France’s TotalEnergies and Geneva-headquartered trading firm Gunvor—have shown interest in state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd’s (BPCL) tender to buy about 4 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over a 10-year period, two people in the know said. The development underscores India’s renewed push to lock in long-term gas supplies amid geopolitical volatility.
India's refiners and gas supply firms have been actively scouting for long-term gas contracts worldover in a bid to achieve energy security amid an uncertain trade scenario and post Russian major Gazprom's contract renege with India's state-owned Gail in 2022.
Earlier this month, India’s second-largest oil marketing firm BPCL had launched a tender to secure a total of 68 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) valued at around ₹35,000 crore.
“BPCL is currently running an enquiry, where for the next 10 years we are wanting to source cargoes, four cargos (annually) in the first three years, and then eight cargos annually in the remaining seven years,” said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. “A total of 68 cargoes would be around 4 million tonnes over a period of 10 years... The company has received 10-plus offers from NOCs (national oil companies) as well as global traders.”
“Adnoc Gas, TotalEnergies, trading major Gunvor are among those interested in this large tender. In value terms, it would be somewhere around ₹35,000 crore,” said a second person cited above, who also did not want to be named.
The development assumes importance for India, world’s fourth largest LNG buyer, that spends around $15 billion on LNG supplies annually. Imports fill in to meet about half of the country's LNG demand, with Qatar, the US and UAE being the top suppliers. In FY25, India imported 35,720 mmscm (million metric standard cubic meters) of LNG worth $14.9 billion, as against 31,795 mmscm buys valued at $13.4 billion in FY24.
Queries emailed to BPCL, Adnoc Gas, TotalEnergies and Gunvor remained unanswered until press time.
India’s gas consumption is expected to grow, driven by city gas distribution and transportation and LNG terminal utilization could rise by 20% by 2030, as supply increasingly moves towards LNG imports. On its part, BPCL is set to invest ₹25,000 crore in the city gas distribution network over the next five years. It has already invested around ₹8,000 crore across its 26 geographical areas.
BPCL had in February last year signed a five-year deal with Adnoc Gas to receive 40 cargoes of LNG totalling 2.5 million tonnes from April 2025.
At the ongoing India Energy Week, BPCL has signed a term contract with Brazil's Petrobras to buy crude oil worth $780 million in FY27. Earlier this month, during the visit of the UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to India, Adnoc Gas, signed a pact to supply crude worth $2.5 - $3 billion for a period of 10 years to another Indian state-run refining and marketing major, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL).
Sector experts said that as global LNG supply expands, India is positioning itself as a benchmark-driven “swing buyer”, tapping spot and short-term cargoes when international price markers align with domestic alternatives, while simultaneously accelerating the adoption of biofuels to meet transport decarbonization goals
“India is increasingly a benchmark-driven swing buyer, stepping into the spot or short-term markets during dislocations between WIM (West India Marker) vs Henry Hub vs Brent linked-pricing. India imported just under 26 mtpa of LNG in 2025," said Kenneth Foo, global director for LNG price reporting at S&P Global Energy. "An additional 3.5-4.0 mtpa of long-term contracted volumes is set to start delivering from 2026. Higher term supply leaves limited scope for spot LNG in 2026, especially if prices remain uncompetitive versus propane, naphtha and fuel oil.”
This comes in the backdrop of concerns over a likely glut in the global market in the next few years as new liquefaction facilities come up in the US and Qatar.
Global LNG oversupply of over 100 billion cubic meter annually is likely to persist till 2030 making it cheaper for importing countries, following which new demand is likely to outstrip supply, according to a McKinsey report released on Thursday.
(Rituraj Baruah is in Panaji on the invitation of the union ministry of petroleum and natural gas.)