India to seek additional LNG from Qatar
India to seek additional LNG from Qatar
New Delhi: India will seek additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to meet its growing energy needs when petroleum minister Murli Deora visits Doha on Monday.
Deora, who is scheduled to meet Qatar’s deputy prime minister and minister for energy and industry Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, will also pitch for setting up a gas-based petrochemical plant by Indian firms, official sources said.
India, which currently has a long-term contract to import 7.5 million tonnes (mt) LNG and an additional 1.25mt on a short-term one year contract, will seek at least 5mt more to meet its growing energy needs.
Qatar plans to raise its LNG production from 29 to 77mt by 2010-11. Post 2010-11 period, Qatar has committed 64.5mt of its LNG production, leaving 12.5mt surplus. India will seek a share from this surplus LNG, sources said. India’s largest LNG import terminal at Dahej in Gujarat is being expanded to 12.5mt by 2010 and its promoter, Petronet LNG Ltd, is also putting up another 2.5mt LNG import terminal at Kochi in Kerala. The Kochi terminal would be expandable to 5mt while a similar capacity terminal is also available at Dabhol in Maharashtra. Sources said Deora would also make a case for Indian firms like GAIL (India) Ltd putting up a gas-based petrochemical plant in Qatar.
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