Adani Total Pvt Ltd will take delivery of its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo at the Dhamra terminal on India’s east coast in April and expects to start profitable operations 30 to 45 days after unloading, Adani Group told Reuters.

The launch of the 5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) LNG import terminal has been delayed until September 2021, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to increase the use of gas in the country’s energy mix to 15% from about 6% currently the core of the strategy.

The Adani Group’s first LNG import terminal will lift gas use in India’s east, where the Dhamra venture is only the second import station. The country’s five other import terminals are located on its western coast.

In which French energy giant TotalEnergies SE owns a 50% stake, Adani Total said the Dhamra terminal predictable safety checks and challenging to be accomplished in February, totalling that all key regulatory sanctions have succeeded.

India’s imports fell for an additional consecutive year in 2022 after increasing for seven years, statistics from analytics firm Kpler presented, with its appetite restricted by high prices due to Europe’s clamber for gas to substitute supply from Russia.

However, imports rose for the first time in eight months in January as Asian LNG prices rose, government data showed. Officials expect prolonged local gas circulation to drive LNG demand in the upcoming years.

Adani Total expects to receive 2.2 million tonnes of LNG at Dhamra in the year to March 2024, the company’s CEO told Reuters this month. It has a 20-year take-or-pay contract to provide regasification services to state-run Indian Oil Corporation to supply 3 million tonnes of LNG per annum and 1.5 tonnes/year to government-run natural gas distributor GAIL (India) Ltd. years of regasification service.