Modi and Trump met for the first time since the US president took office last week and agreed to boost American oil and gas exports as part of efforts to rebalance trade relations between the two countries.
Donald Trump and Narendra Modi’s pledge to make India one of the leading buyers of American energy will benefit US natural gas exports the most, he said. Currently, India’s crude oil supplier is Russia, while the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas is Qatar. The US is the world’s largest LNG exporter, accounting for about a fifth of India’s supplies in 2024.
“India has the potential to buy more from all sources,” Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s oil and gas minister, told the Financial Times in an interview shortly before the leaders’ meeting. “There is a huge appetite for more energy in India.” He said the government’s “primary policy decision is to increase the share of natural gas in our energy mix from 6 percent to 15 percent by 2030,” for which India will need to import more gas.
The US LNG sector has said it is ready to increase exports to India, citing aggressive expansion plans by private operators to build new terminals. “We are well positioned and have the capacity to fulfill President Trump’s commitment to supply additional LNG to US allies… to meet growing global energy demand,” said Mike Sabel, Chief Executive Officer of Venture Global, one of the largest US LNG suppliers.
https://www.ft.com/content/e029e3aa-120f-49d6-951f-ad51e7a1a533
