British Foreign Minister Hugo Swire to visit Gujarat tomorrow, a meeting with Narendra Modi scheduled

Ahmedabad, 19 March 2013

The British Minister of State for Foreign Office Hugo Swire, alongwith a high-level trade delegation will visit Gujarat on Wednesday. The British Minister is scheduled to meet Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow, and explore possibilities of cooperation and tie-ups in various sectors.

The UK in October last year had announced to resume engagement with Gujarat after 2002. British High Commissioner James Bevan had visited Gandhinagar in October last year and had discussed a range of issues including trade and commerce with the Gujarat CM.

The British Gas delegation will be part of tomorrow’s visit. It is likely to be headed by the group’s Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Africa, Central and South Asia, Sami Iskander, official sources said. During the visit, BG Group is likely to ‘firm up’ the long term gas supply agreement signed with Gujarat government owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) in September, 2011. Iskander, is likely to sign an agreement with GSPC tomorrow, to firm up the Heads of Agreement (HoA) for long term gas supply to the state PSU.

BG Group may sign a 20-year contract worth as much as $20bn to provide liquefied natural gas to Gujarat. BG entered an initial agreement with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, to explore supplying as much as 2.5m tonnes In 2011. BG sold its majority stake in distribution group Gujarat Gas to GSPC for Rs24.6bn ($470m) in October. The company expects India to be the third-largest global importer of LNG by 2025, after Japan and China, with annual demand rising to 50m tonnes – a six fold increase from 2012.