Qatari Amir's visit comes even as India's natural gas usage falls

Besides, the US has also offered to sell India natural gas, a move that would certainly cut into current supplies from the West Asian nation

The rare honour Prime Minister Narendra Modi accorded to the Amir of Qatar H H Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani by receiving him at the airport on Monday will, among other things, possibly help smoothen the natural gas supply creases between the two countries. Qatar supplies almost 50 per cent of the gas India imports, yet there are question marks over the reliability of the supply chain.     

Those wrinkles have come into sharp relief after the United States made a pitch for India