NEW DELHI: India has offered Qatar a 10-percent stake in Petronet LNG Ltd. to secure an additional supply of liquefied natural gas this year, Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said yesterday.
India is also ready to agree on a long-term supply deal for meeting fuel needs for the Dabhol power plant, Deora said. The offer was made over a breakfast meeting between Deora and the visiting Qatari Deputy Premier & Oil Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah.
“We will consider the offer. It has to be done through the Qatar Investment Board,” Attiyah said. In Petronet, four state-run energy companies (GAIL India, Oil and Natural Gas Corp., Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp.) each have a 12.5 percent share, while GDF International, a wholly owned subsidiary of French national gas Company Gaz De France, owns 10 percent and the Asian Development Bank controls 5.2 percent. The public holds the balance equity of 34.8 percent.
Qatar is at present supplying 5 million tons of gas to India to meet its increasing demands. India presently needs 180 million cubic meters of gas per day against the actual supply of 114 million cubic meters.
Qatar has already assured India of additional supply of 600,000 tons of LNG to India.
Soon after his arrival to attend the Petrotech 2009 conference (Jan. 11-15), Attiyah said: “We will sell more extra (LNG) cargoes this year.”
Under a 25-year contract, RasGas currently sells 5 million tons a year to Petronet. Under the same contract, an additional 2.5 million tons will be supplied from the fourth quarter of 2009.
Qatar came to the rescue of beleaguered Dabhol power plant by agreeing to supply more than 1.25 million tons.
Qatar is likely to supply six cargo shipments this year beginning February. Qatar may export an additional 18 cargo shipments on India’s request.