India seeks additional one mt LNG from Qatar

India has sought an additional one million tonnes of LNG from Qatar to meet its growing energy needs.

"We have made a request to them but nothing has been concretised as yet," Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey told reporters on the sidelines of Petrotech 2009 conference here.

Qatar has so far committed six cargoes but we want more, he said.

It has committed to sell six loose LNG cargoes in first half of current year and it may export an additional 18 cargoes.

Besides, one million tons of short term LNG, New Delhi has made a plea for 2.5 million tons of LNG on a long-term contract for the 2,150 Mw Dabhol power plant in Maharashtra.

The additional LNG would help ease the fuel deficit faced by power and fertilizer units in the country.

RasGas of Qatar currently sells 5 million tons a year of LNG to Petronet LNG under a 25-year contract. An additional 2.5 million tons would be supplied under the same contract from September this year, he said.

Besides, Qatar had last year come to the rescue of beleaguered Dabhol power plant agreeing to supply just over 1.25 million tons to Petronet, which used GAIL pipeline network to transport the gas from its Dahej import terminal in Gujarat to the power plant on the Maharashtra coast.

Qatar, which has the world's third largest gas reserves, in the first five years to December 2008 had sold LNG to Petronet at $2.53 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu).

From January, this price has been revised to $3.12 per mmBtu, but it is still one-third of the current spot LNG price.

The joint venture of Shell and Total of France this month imported a spot LNG cargo from Australia at $9.06 per mmBtu.