India is an important market for Cheniere’s LNG, where we have built relationships to support local communities with more than just the energy our product provides. COVID-19 caused significant health care shortages in India, in particular a serious shortfall in medical oxygen. The demand for oxygen — which only a small number of hospitals in India can produce in-house — rose tenfold during the pandemic. However, oxygen production plants are concentrated in the industrial belt of eastern India, which constrains the amount of oxygen available and necessitates specialized trucking equipment to deliver to faraway hospitals. To help address the oxygen shortage, Cheniere partnered with Sewa International to fund an oxygen generator plant for the Sreevalsam Institute of Medical Sciences in Malappuram. The new plant, which became operational in 2022, will benefit roughly 3 million residents in the Kerala districts of Malappuram, Thrissur and Palakkad in southwest India — and will remain part of the medical infrastructure for the next 20 years.
Cheniere also partnered with Project C.U.R.E. to provide beds and medical supplies to a Warangal hospital converted into a COVID-19 treatment site, and coordinated vaccinations for Kerala Seafarer Center crews on board ships docked at our Sabine Pass terminal.