Petronet to buy gas from multiple sources

Gas major Petronet LNG, which started the supply of LNG from its Dahej terminal, announced that it will buy gas from multiple sources. The announcement comes in the wake of the company's board clearing the proposal of hiking its capacity to 10 mm tpy from the existing 5 mm tpy.
"We have already signed a long-term agreement with RasGas of Qatar which assured us an uninterrupted supply of LNG for the next 25 years. However, we are exploring the possibility of buying gas from various sources," said Suresh Mathur, managing director of Petronet.

Meanwhile, GAIL India, one of the stakeholders of the company, is exploring possibilities of buying gas from the National Iran Oil Company (NIOC). However, this may take at least 3-4 years. Petronet is also likely to initiate talks with various LNG suppliers in Yemen, Australia and Malaysia.
Mathur, who was in Ahmedabad to address a brokers' meet on the eve of the company's initial public offer, said, though the agreement with RasGas assures supply of7.5 mm tpy of LNG for next 25 years, the deficit of 2.5 mm tpy also will be met by the Qatar-based oil and gas major.

"The RasGas officials assured us of supply of increased amount of LNG but we are simultaneously also looking for various other sources to secure our supply on long-term basis."
"We will also check with resources in the other countries about the price factor and also we need to calculate the transportation charges which may finally add into the LNG price and make it a more expensive provision than the price at which we are buying from RasGas," said Mathur.

Shell Hazira, another player in the LNG market, is also setting up a 2.5 mm tpy terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. The terminal is scheduled to be commissioned during this September.
Shell Hazira is also planning to source LNG from multiple resources from Brunei, Australia, Malaysia and the Middle-East.