'Trump's trade tariffs add another level of uncertainty to LNG market': Tom Summers

Shell LNG marketing executive said, adding that LNG trade will find ways to adapt to logistical interruptions.

Shell, the world's largest trader of LNG, accounts for 15% of global trade and supplies about a tenth of India's LNG imports. The company remains sanguine about India, which imported record volumes of LNG in 2024, and aims to tie up more long-term sale contracts with Indian buyers and expand its import terminal capacity when there is a need for it, Tom Summers, senior vice president for Shell LNG Marketing & Trading, told ET in an interview.

Summers defended Shell's India terminal's underutilisation, saying global utilisation average is probably 50% or less and its India terminal is strategically connected to supply and demand centres to serve the growing customer needs. Shell's Indian terminal's utilisation is about 40% while India's average is 55%.

Summers, however, refrained from saying whether Trump's tariffs were «good or bad» for the LNG market. «But it certainly means we're having to weigh up multiple factors at the moment to understand the impacts on the market together with all the other fundamentals, technical and other geopolitical impacts,» he said. «It's another level of uncertainty that our buyers are seeking to understand and I think the same goes for some new supply projects.»

Even after the end of the Ukraine war, Europe will continue to need LNG supplies, Summers said. «I won't speculate on Russian gas returning (after the war ends). There's a lot of geopolitical factors that are being