Can Gov. Abbott help Texas LNG in India Sales?
According to the Houston Chronicle, Gov. Abbott is reaching out to India indicating he wants to sell the country LNG from Texas. This is great work; thank the Govenor if you have a chance!
Abbott to India: Expand LNG shipments from Texas
Also pushing for direct flights to Houston or Dallas
Updated 4:41 pm, Wednesday, March 28, 2018
AUSTIN — In a continuing push to increase trade with India, Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday lobbied top Indian petroleum and energy officials to expand shipments of liquefied natural gas shipments from Texas ports and to establish direct flights with the Lone Star state.
Abbott concluded a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by stressing to reporters that both sides have a mutual desire to strengthen the Texas-India trade relationship — a move that could mean billions in additional business for Texas energy companies in coming decades.
Abbott is on a week-long trade mission to India, whose companies have invested more than $5 billion in hydrocarbon assets in the United States and have contracted to import more than 9 million metric tons of LNG annually. That is a boon for Houston and other Texas port cities.
"India is one of the most prolific economies in the world, and growing economies need access to energy," Abbott told a reporter accompanying him on the trip. "As long as India has a need for oil and natural gas, Texas will be a willing partner to provide it. As this energy trade continues to grow so will the Texas economy, and I look forward to many more years of this tremendous partnership."
Recommended Video:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott visits the corporate campus of Wipro and Infosys in New Dehli, India, on Wednesday, March 28, as part of nine-day trade mission to India. Footage by KTRK-ABC 13, provided by the Texas Governor’s Office.
Media: KTRK-13
Abbott spent more than an hour meeting with Modi — "an historic meeting," he called it — where topics from defense and terrorism to energy, technology and health care were discussed and new trade opportunities were explored.
After a meeting with Dharmendra Pradhan, India's minister of petroleum and natural gas, Abbott said Texas intends to continue expanding its LNG and oil export facilities to ensure the state can meet India's growing energy needs. Two new LNG export facilities are currently under construction, officials said.
After the U.S. last year ended a decades-long ban on exporting U.S. crude, India's state-owned oil refineries bought it on the American spot market, including the October shipment of LNG.
"A new chapter was added in last October when the first consignment of crude from the U.S. reached Indian shores," Pradhan told reporters after meeting with Abbott.
Pradhan, who has been energy minister for nearly four years as part of Modi's coalition government, said India is the world's third-leading consumer of energy, behind the U.S. and China.
In the past, India has bought U.S. natural gas on the spot market. But the state-owned gas company, GAIL, has signed a 20-year contract for U.S. LNG shipments from two American companies.
The first shipment under that contract will arrive Friday in Dabhol, on India's west coast along the Arabian Sea.
In a separate meeting with India's commerce and civil aviation minister, Suresh Prabhu, Abbott discussed establishing a direct air flight from India to Texas "to further enhance the exchange of both cultural and economic development."
No decisions were announced.
Abbott said he has asked Indian officials to help clear the way for the flight from either Houston or Dallas, or both — and is optimistic they will look favorably on a Texas proposal for the new service.
"When I get home, it's going to be one of the issues I focus on," Abbott said. "I'm going to have Houston and Dallas battle it out and let the respective airlines battle it out."
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