India turns to expensive foreign gas to ease its power supply crunch

While natural gas makes up just a small portion of India's power mix, a scarcity of coal and hot weather has triggered scheduled blackouts, threatening to upend the economy

Sweltering heat and ongoing blackouts are forcing India’s liquefied natural gas importers to top up with expensive shipments.

Torrent Power Ltd. and GAIL India Ltd. bought LNG for May delivery in the last week, with the fuel set to be used to help power plants boost generation, according to traders with knowledge of the matter. The utilities paid about triple the normal spot rate for this time of year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbates a global supply crunch. 

The purchases are unusual for India’s cost-sensitive power generators, which tend to avoid buying LNG at such high rates. They illustrate how a