Wednesday, Jul 17, 2002
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By Atul Aneja
The Indian delegation to the talks at Doha was led by B.K Chaturvedi, Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum, and included Suresh Chandra Mathur, Chairman of the Petronet LNG Limited (PLL). India is set to become the largest single recipient of natural gas from Qatar after a key two-phased project that would involve bringing liquefied natural gas shipments to terminals in Dahej in Gujarat and Kochi in Kerala is concluded. Petronet, a conglomerate of major Indian oil companies has already signed a deal with RasGas of Qatar that also has the U.S. energy giant, Exxon Mobil, and key Japanese companies as partners. Qatar holds the world's third largest natural gas reserves, after Russia and Iran. Nearly 20 per cent of the Persian Gulf reserves of 1,918 trillion cubic feet are located in Qatar's North Dome field alone. India's bid to annually acquire five million tonnes at Dahej by the end of next year and 2.5 million tonnes at Kochi are major elements of its long-term energy security plans. Planners also envisage that once Qatari gas is received, it will be pumped into the 2000 km-long Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur pipeline, India's major energy artery. Under an agreement that has already been signed, Qatar will supply gas to the two Indian terminals for the next 25 years. During talks, India has also shown an interest in investing around $27 million in the RasGas expansion plans. Following the example of the French company, Gas de France, RasGas also seeks to acquire a 10 per cent equity stake in Petronet. Analysts point out that by acquiring financial stakes, both countries will enhance their capacity to influence energy-related decisions in either country in the future. Progress with Qatar on the energy front acquires additional importance as India's efforts to acquire natural gas from abroad have met with limited success. The differences between India and Pakistan over Kashmir have blocked a possible deal with Iran that envisages piping gas to India via Pakistan as the most viable option. Political considerations also appear to have stood in the way of the possible supply of gas from Bangladesh to India. Nevertheless, Myanmar, Russia and Kazakhstan are beginning to feature prominently on India's energy security map.
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