Gaz offers 1 mt LNG to Petronet

Gaz holds 10% stake in Petronet

Gaz de France, one of the equity holders in Petronet LNG, has offered to bring 1 million tonne liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran's South Pars field. Petronet is also trying to source additional quantities of gas from Qatar.

Gaz holds 10 per cent equity in Petronet. It is offering LNG to Petronet out of its share of gas from Pars LNG.

Gaz is the national gas company of France and is the largest importer of LNG in Europe. It has provided technical support to Petronet for the construction of LNG terminal.

Company sources told Business Standard, negotiations regarding price are still on. Petronet is currently operating a LNG terminal at Dahej in Gujarat for which it is buying gas from RasGas of Qatar. RasGas holds another 10 per cent stake in Petronet.

Petronet LNG is planning to expand the capacity of its Dahej terminal from 5 to 10 million tonne per annum (mtpa) by 2008, while simultaneously going ahead with another LNG terminal at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore at Kochi in Kerala.

The Kochi terminal would have a capacity of 2.5 mtpa. This terminal was planned along with the Dahej terminal but the company had been going slow on this project awaiting demand in the region to go up.

The company plans to raise the capacity of Kochi terminal to 5 mtpa in future and the construction would be completed in two and half years.

Petronet LNG, a joint venture of Indian Oil Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation and GAIL, had been negotiating with the Qatar government to provide additional 7.5 mtpa LNG beginning 2007. But most of the Qatar LNG capacity has already been tied up.