Qatar nod for India's LNG plea

India sought an additional annual supply of three million tonnes of Liquefied Natural Gas from Qatar, even as the two countries on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to boost bilateral cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector.

The MoU is one of the six deals struck by Delhi and Doha after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with the visiting Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, here on Monday. Qatar responded positively to India’s demand for an additional three million tonnes of LNG, and the two sides are trying to narrow down differences on the issue of pricing.

Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy and his Qatari counterpart Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada signed the MoU, which envisaged bilateral cooperation in the areas of upstream and downstream oil and gas activities. It is expected to encourage and promote investment and cooperation between the two governments and companies affiliated by them.

Qatar has a proven oil reserve of 25.38 billion barrels and a proven gas reserve 25201 billion cubic meters. India imported 5.6 MT of crude oil from Qatar in 2010-11. India’s Petronet LNG imports 7.5 MT of natural gas from Qatar’s state-run Rasgas to its re-gasification terminal at Dahej in Gujarat every year under a long-term agreement. The first shipment took place in 2004.