India seeks 3m tonnes of extra gas yearly from Qatar

New Delhi: India is seeking an extra three million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year from Qatar for its Dahej plant and Dabhol project under long-term contracts, an industry source said on Friday.

Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, currently supplies 7.5 million tonnes of LNG a year to India under a long term contract.

"We want supplies to begin from 2013 in long-term deals of 20-25 years. Spot and short-term contracts we can manage," the source said on condition of anonymity.

The Dahej plant, operated by state-owned by Petronet LNG, has capacity for 10 million tonnes per year and this should rise to 15 million tonnes per year by end-2015.

The Dabhol LNG term-inal should be commissioned by March and will have capacity of 5 million tonnes per year. It will be operated by state-owned companies GAIL India and NTPC, a power producer.

India's economy, growing at around 8 per cent per year, relies heavily on imports for its energy needs.

Consumption

According to BP's Energy Outlook 2030, India's daily gas consumption in 2010 was estimated at 6.1 billion cubic feet (bcf) and is expected to exceed 15 bcf in 2030.

LNG currently accounts for a tiny amount of India's energy needs, most of which are met by coal with oil covering about a quarter of demand — making the country Asia's third-largest oil importer.

Its LNG import capacity should reach 47.5 million tonnes a year (mtpa) in 2015-16 from 13.5 million tonnes currently as it seeks to diversify its import needs.

Oil minister S. Jaipal Reddy said India had asked Qatar for extra LNG supplies but did not specify quantities.

"We did seek more supplies of both gas and oil. Discussions are going on. So far, they have been very favourable on cost," Reddy told reporters after meeting Qatar's oil minister, Mohammad Al Sada, here.

An Indian government statement issued after the meeting said Qatar offered to supply liquefied petroleum gas and oil condensate.