Qatar will remain India’s main source of LNG for another 4 years

India's top gas importer Petronet LNG is likely to sign a deal this month to extend its long-term liquefied

natural gas (LNG) imports from Qatar to beyond 2028, India's Oil Secretary said

Petronet has a 7.5-million metric ton per year long-term LNG import deal with Qatar and its

promoters Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and GAIL (India) Ltd has a 1 million deal. Petronethas a huge terminal at Dahej and a five million ton capacity at Cochin. It has no terminals in the east coast of India

Indian companies had until the end of 2023 to negotiate with Qatar for renewal of the deals beyond 2028.

"We are pretty close to signing the deal," Oil Secretary Pankaj Jain told reporters.

Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, aims to expand its liquefaction capacity to 126 million tons per

annum by 2027 from 77 million and has signed long-term deals with European majors Shell, 

Total Energies and ENI. It has also signed long-term gas deals with China's Sinopec, China National

Petroleum Corp and Bangladesh.