India Won’t Buy Russian LNG Sanctioned by the US, Oil Minister Says

(Bloomberg) -- India won’t buy liquefied natural gas from a project in Russia that is sanctioned by the US, Oil Minister Hardeep Puri said.

“If the LNG from Russia is from a sanctioned facility, we won’t buy,” Puri said in an interview on the sidelines of the Gastech conference in Houston. “There’s no issue there.”

Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 facility, sanctioned by the US last year, is struggling to find buyers, upending Moscow’s plans to expand exports of the super-chilled fuel. The facility has exported five shipments since August on dark fleet vessels, but the fuel has yet to be delivered to any nation.

While New Delhi isn’t buying from the Arctic LNG 2 project, some firms involved in providing support to the shadow fleet exporting fuel from the facility above the Arctic circle are based in India’s western state of Maharashtra.

The minister said he wasn’t aware of the involvement of any Indian firms in ferrying sanctioned Russian LNG cargoes. “We have a very healthy dialogue with America,” he added.

Puri said the South Asian nation didn’t need to buy Russian LNG because it already has long term supply deals with Qatar and the US and its own gas output was also rising.

India continues to lift crude from Russia as it is not sanctioned, Puri said. “I think there is a vested interest in the global community, particularly in the United States, that Russian oil should keep flowing, but it should be within a price cap.”