Can India-US energy bridge work? Crown LNG CEO says...

When it comes to ensuring a stable supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), India needs to maintain strong diplomatic ties with only the four largest gas suppliers, i.e. US, Qatar, Australia and Russia, said Crown LNG’s CEO Swapan Kataria.

Kataria leads a company, which develops, finances, owns and operates LNG terminals in locations exposed to harsh weather conditions. Following his session at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit at Bharat Mandapam, Kataria sat down with Firstpost to speak about Crown LNG’s project at Kakinada Deepsea Port in Andhra Pradesh, energy challenges India is currently facing and how LNG can prove to be a solid bridge between India and the United States.

In February this year, Kataria signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Gas Exchange (IGE) CEO Rajesh Kumar to set up an LNG terminal in Andhra Pradesh. “The LNG terminal will be set up at an estimated cost of ₹9,000 crore. The facility is expected to meet the commercial and industrial needs in South India,” Kakinada Member of Parliament T. Uday Srinivas said in a statement at that time.

During a conversation with Firstpost, Kataria explains how his project in the eastern port will stand against harsh weather conditions.

How energy can be a bridge between India & US

When it comes to ties between India and the US, Kataria bluntly said “LNG or natural gas is something that India needs and the US has lots of it.” A similar assertion was made by the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India, Hardeep Singh Puri, when spoke about how the United States can be a strong LNG supplier.

“They must have the oil to sell us. When they have the oil, but LNG they have. And I see a lot of increase in LNG. By the way, we’ve been buying 15 to 20 billion dollars of energy from them in any case in the last few years,” Puri said at one of the sessions in the Rising Bharat Summit. 

“I think India needs a lot more gas than what we can bring to the table. And India should be looking at the United States for a partnership for gas at least. And outside of gas, I think there are other things that the US can give to India which is technology,” Kataria told Firstpost. He mentioned that these “patented and proprietary technologies” can help in the growth and development of several industries in India.

“But India has to play that role and when it comes to India, it should be a technology transfer. So India can benefit from creating that industry locally so people can develop the skill set,” he added.

About the project at Kakinada Deep Seaport

When asked about the project, Kataria explained why they chose the eastern port instead of going west. He also spoke about a special technology, which Crown LNG has, called the Gravity Based Structure technology. “I think when you look at the LNG market of India, you see the need to import it from different international markets. And when you import it, you have to have these regasification plants set up, which can convert that liquid molecule into gas and push it into the pipeline network of India,” he explained.

So to do that, India has established various import terminals authorised by the government and licenced by the government for the next period of years. And we have one of the licences, which is on the east coast of India, which is about 7.2 million tonnes per annum. Now, why did we choose the east of India? The reason we chose the east of India is that we have a special technology, which is called the gravity-based structure technology, which is a concrete substructure that sits on the seabed offshore, does not occupy any space on land and services and operates through a hurricane or a typhoon," he added.

Kataria mentioned that the Indian East coast has a unique geological or natural setting. “It has a very low draft because five of the six major rivers of India end up in the eastern basin. So they bring a lot of silt over the years,” he said. The Crown LNG CEO said he could leave the facility 20 kilometres, 30 kilometres offshore, connected through a subsea pipeline and the vessels will come and discharge at the facility offshore, avoiding the painstaking task of digging a channel for the vessels to come to land.

How to deal with turbulent weather

The east coast of India faces turbulent weather cycles. Cyclones and heavy rains often wreak havoc at the eastern ports. When asked about these challenges, Kataria explained that the gravity-based structure technology can wither the storm and maintain supplies for 365 days. He shared an interesting anecdote to state his argument.

“If you imagine a boat, when the wave comes, it goes up and down with the waves. Our gravity-based structure sits on the seabed. It does not go up and down with the waves. So it’s like an LNG island,” he said.

“If you had a vessel and the wave height is more than one and a half metres for 90 or 100 days in a year, you cannot supply your customers with product 365 days. And that’s the huge difference and the value that Crown brings to the table. Because Crown can operate 365 days even through turbulent weather,” he added.

‘Regulatory process needs to be streamlined’

When asked about the energy transmission laws in India, Kataria said that in regards to LNG transmission, the regulatory process needs to be streamlined. “I think when you look at energy transmission, there are two kinds of energy transmissions. One is the pipeline gas transmission. And the other one is the national grid, which moves electricity or electrons,” Kataria explained.

“We’re not operating a power plant to send electricity. So from a gas perspective, I think I would say that the system should probably build a lot more pipelines and a lot faster. Because if they take too long to build pipelines, it creates a huge delay and running cost for projects like ours.”

“And that ultimately, if the project becomes more expensive, the consumer pays more money. So to have the consumer get the best value for their buck, I think it is very important to have regulatory processes streamlined,” he furthered.

Need for India to be more self-reliant in what they have

During his session at the Rising Bharat Summit, Kataria pointed out that India “does not have uranium, but we have thorium” and explained how this resource can be capitalised. While speaking to Firstpost, he reiterated the assertion but highlighted the challenges that come with it.

“I think for any country, it is very important to build things around what they can control. If we can control and if we have to do nuclear power in India, I think it makes sense if we use the raw material that is available in India than to be dependent on a foreign country. So that was my thought in saying that if India has thorium instead of uranium, then India should focus on thorium reactors.” he said.

“But somebody has to spend the money to develop it. Nobody is going to just come out of sleep the next day in the morning and say I am going to spend so many billion dollars because I just feel like it. The government has to do it for the people,” he added.

India has to maintain ties with 4 key players regarding LNG

While Kataria acknowledged that India has strong ties with Southeast Asian nations in the energy sector, he emphasised that in regards to gas, India needs to have strong ties with the 4 largest LNG producers. “If you look at gas as LNG, the largest producers are the US, Qatar, Australia and Russia. So you don’t have a list of 200 countries that you need to maintain diplomatic relationships. There are really four of them. You have to now play your diplomatic relationships in a way which are beneficial for India,” he said.

When asked how India should go about it in that regard, Kataria insisted that diplomatic ties with the US and Russia will remain important to ensure an enriched supply of gas to the country. “I think there is room for improvement certainly with Russia. I believe Russia cannot give as much product as India needs. India will have to buy both from Russia and the US,” he said.

“I think the US can give a lot more product to India than Russia. And may not be as competitive but I don’t think price should be our objective. Our objective should be to buy it at any price available because we need to create an industry to give you the jobs,” he furthered.

LNG & AI

Kataria also explained how LNG can help the Artificial Intelligence sector in the long run. “Let’s say you wanted to do an AI data centre in India today. One of the key things that an AI data centre needs is power, it needs electricity. And it needs electricity in such a way that it should not just be switched on, switch off. It always remains on,” Kataria explained.

“Solar is not going to be available at night when the sun is gone to sleep. And the wind is a factor which goes up and down so you cannot guarantee that,” he added. The Crown LNG CEO pointed out that there are three ways constant power supply can be guaranteed; i.e. coal, nuclear or gas.

“Now nuclear is not available and coal is too carbon intensive. So the AI data centres which are controlled by these big hyperscalers which have ESG requirements, don’t want to touch that,” he said.

“So gas becomes the right conduit for achieving those hyper-scale AI data centres in India. And that’s where we got into the role because we have a licence to bring the gas in. So we can build a power plant and offer AI data centres on demand 24 hours, 365 days power,” he concluded.