India is likely to get an additional 2.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to meet its growing energy needs, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has stated.
Singh, on his maiden visit to energy-rich Gulf region, did some aggressive talking on sourcing the fuel from Qatar, which has already committed 7.5 million tonnes of LNG a year.
During the visit, New Delhi signed a historic defence and security cooperation pact committing to protect Qatar's interests and in exchange bargained for more fuel.
"At my request and the request of my colleague (Petroleum Minister) Murli Deora, the government of Qatar has agreed to consider enhancing our allocation in the course of next one or two years," Singh told reporters on the way back home.
While Singh met the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar, Deora separately courted Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister and Energy and Industry Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah.
"We had an excellent one-hour meeting. Attiyah is a great friend of India and promised to look into our LNG needs," Deora told PTI.
Also discussed was possibility of importing urea, phosphate, ammonia and sulphur from Qatar on a long-term basis and a proposal to set up a gas-fired fertilizer plant.
"We also discussed the possibilities of expanded co-operation between India and Qatar with regard to supply of fertilizer either (through) investments in fertilizer plants in India or expanding production of fertilizer plants in Qatar with an assured market in India," Singh said.
Qatar presently has a capacity to produce about 31 million tonnes and expansions would take the capacity to 77 million tonnes by 2012, of which Deora asked Attiyah to meet the 5-7.5 million tonnes a year fuel shortfall in India.
