India keen to boost RasGas LNG ties

Senior officials from India’s oil and gas industry expressed their appreciation for RasGas on the inaugural day of Petrotech 2012 exhibition currently being held in New Delhi. India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas S Jaipal Reddy and the secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, GC Chaturvedi visited the RasGas stand at the exhibition and expressed India’s keen interest in growing the long-term relationship with RasGas. Chaturvedi said India enjoys the relationship with RasGas, which will continue well into the future. “Our appetite for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is insatiable,” he said. “India’s rapidly growing economy has an increasing need for clean and secure energy. RasGas’ presence at Petrotech this year speaks about our commitment to meet the growing LNG demands of this key market,” said Ali Khalaf al-Kaabi, RasGas long-term sales marketing manager, who is leading the delegation. RasGas has delivered more than 49mn tonnes of LNG to India’s Petronet under long-term and spot sales deals since the commencement of a long-term sale and purchase agreement in 2004. RasGas’ relationship with India dates back to July 1999 when Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company (II) and Petronet LNG entered into a long-term sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for the delivery of 7.5mn tonnes per year of LNG over a 25-year period. “As the largest liquefied natural gas supplier to India, RasGas has a strong and long-standing relationship with the key players in the Indian market. We are keen to further strengthen and build on such relationship to meet the growing demand of our LNG customers in India,” al-Kaabi said earlier. The Petrotech Conference and Exhibition, which concludes today is a biennial event, bringing together more than 3,000 professionals from the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry. RasGas said its delegation was looking forward to further expanding the company’s business presence in the subcontinent. RasGas is a silver sponsor of the event this year.