LNG Terminals

Imagine a port built for a single, very specific cargo, gas that arrives as an extremely cold liquid and must be warmed back into its normal form before it can go anywhere else. An LNG terminal is exactly that specialised port, the physical point where an imported LNG cargo stops being a ship's cargo and starts becoming pipeline gas again.

An LNG terminal typically consists of a jetty where the tanker docks, insulated storage tanks to hold the liquid safely, and a regasification unit that warms the LNG back into gaseous form for injection into the national pipeline grid. India's terminals, led by Petronet LNG's facility at Dahej in Gujarat among the largest in the country, effectively function as the front door for all of India's imported natural gas.

Terminal capacity is a genuine bottleneck worth tracking, because even if India signs a large LNG supply deal, that gas is stranded on a ship unless there is enough terminal capacity on shore to actually receive and regasify it.