The government of India offered Qatar a 10 percent stake in Petronet LNG Ltd on Wednesday (January 14). The offer was made by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to visiting Qatari deputy premier and energy minister, Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah. The Arab Kingdom agreed to increase LNG supply to India. According to reports, Qatar has assured to supply additional 600,000 tonnes of LNG to India, its largest customer.

 

The state-run procurer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Petronet has four energy companies as its stake holders including GAIL India, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Each energy company has a 12.5 percent equity share in Petronet. On the other hand, GDF International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of French national gas Company Gaz De France, owns 10 percent and the Asian Development Bank controls 5.2 percent of share in Petronet. The government holds the balance equity of 34.8 percent in the LNG company.

 

India had earlier signed an agreement with Qatar for 7.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG of which five million tonnes are being currently made available and 2.5 million tonnes will be available by the last quarter of 2009. During PM Manmohan Singh's visit to Qatar last November, the two nations also discussed the possibility of expanding cooperation in regard to supply of fertilizers and investing in fertilizer plants in India.