Gazprom Singapore pays meagre penalty for defaulted LNG deliveries to India

A former unit of Russia’s Gazprom is paying a ‘meagre’ penalty for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes it had failed to deliver to India since early June to absolve itself of all contractual liabilities, a top government official said.

Gazprom Marketing and Trading Singapore (GMTS), under a long-term 20-year contract, was to supply 2.5 million tonne of LNG to state-owned GAIL (India) Ltd this year. But it has not supplied any cargo or shipload of LNG since early June.

“The contract provides for a penalty of 20 per cent of the agreed price in case of a default by the supplier. GMTS is paying that penalty to absolve itself of all contractual liabilities,” the official, who wished not to be identified, said.