India bets on Qatar again with 20-year LNG deal

QatarEnergy and India’s Petronet LNG signed their biggest-ever deal for the supply of liquified natural gas (LNG) Tuesday, in a 20-year agreement to ship 7.5 million tons per annum (MTPA) to the South Asian country.

The deal between the state-run energy companies was signed in Goa, West India, in the presence of Qatari Energy Minister and QatarEnergy CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, as well as Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri.

India’s secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and chairman of Petronet LNG, Pankaj Jain, and Sandeep Kumar Gupta, chairman and managing director of natural gas company GAIL (India) Limited, also attended the signing. Also in attendance were Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, chairman of Indian Oil Corporation, and Krishnakumar Gopalan, chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Qatar, the world's third largest LNG exporter, is holding high-level talks in Goa with GAIL and Indian Oil Corp. QatarEnergy boss Kaabi said at India Energy Week that his company was in discussions with “a lot of colleagues” in Indian companies about new deals.