New Delhi: Petronet LNG Ltd is keen to partner ONGC Videsh Ltd to buy a stake in Qatar Petroleum's upcoming gas exploration and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, its managing director and CEO Prabhat Singh said.
Qatar Petroleum plans to expand the annual LNG production capacity to 100 million tonnes from 77 million tonnes in the next few years. Petronet is keen to take a 5 per cent stake in the expansion project along with associated upstream gas development, he said.
State-owned Qatar Petroleum, which consolidated its two LNG producing companies - Qatargas and RasGas - into itself earlier this year, is looking to form a joint venture with international partners to deliver the North Field expansion.
"We had meetings with them and they have asked us to give a business proposal," Singh said, adding the joint team of Petronet and OVL is keen to visit data room to firm their views.
Petronet currently buys 7.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum from RasGas of Qatar under a 25-year contract. RasGas had in the contract promised to give a 5 per cent stake to Petronet or its nominee in the liquefication plant in the Gulf nation. But Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), which was assigned to pick up the equity, hesitated in making the $135 million payment. The stake is now worth $2 billion.
Singh said Qatar has announced plans to produce 100 million tonnes of LNG annually - equivalent to a third of current global supplies - in the next five to seven years, up from 77 million tonnes at present.
Petronet is keen to get ownership of gas molecules at the well-head and so wants a stake in both the upstream development and LNG production facility, he said.
The stake would help Petronet, which is India's biggest LNG importer, better understand the business of converting natural gas extracted from under-sea fields to liquids at sub-zero temperature, shipped and marketed world over. This will be its first investment in an LNG production plant.
Petronet operates a 15-million-tonne terminal at Dahej in Gujarat for LNG import.
