India's Petronet not seeking additonal Qatar LNG under deal renewal
NEW DELHI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - India's top gas importer Petronet LNG is not seeking additional volumes when it renews its long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal with Qatar, its head of finance V. K Mishra said on Monday on an analyst call.
Petronet has a 7.5-million metric ton per year (tpy) long-term LNG import deal with Qatar and its promoters Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and GAIL (India) Ltd has a 1 million tpy deal, Mishra said.
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Petronet previously said that it would seek up to 1 million tons per annum of additional LNG when it renews its deal.
"We are going for renewal of the contract. Renewal means it will be of same quantity," Mishra said, without elaborating.
Indian companies have until the end of this year to negotiate with Qatar for renewal of the deals to beyond 2028.
Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, aims to expand its liquefaction capacity to 126 million tpy by 2027 from 77 million and recently signed long-term deals with European majors Shell , TotalEnergies and ENI.
It has also signed long-term gas deals with China's Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corp and Bangladesh.
The CEO of Petronet LNG earlier in the day said he hoped negotiations between India and Qatar to extend their LNG import deals beyond 2028 would not be harmed by a diplomatic row between the countries.
The government in New Delhi said last week it was "deeply shocked" by a decision by a Qatar court to impose the death penalty on eight Indians arrested in the country last year, on charges that have not been made public.
Petronet LNG CEO A. K. Singh said: "We are in business. It (the diplomatic row) will be handled at the highest level of the country... we hope this does not have any impact on business relations."
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Jan Harvey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)