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Qatar doesn't plan to renegotiate LNG contracts with India

Qatar has refused to renegotiate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contract with India, and has in turn proposed to increase their cooperation and to sell more volumes of LNG to India. India is seeking to obtain better terms, as spot prices for LNG delivered to Indian ports are currently half of those under the long-term LNG contracts.

In 2015, India succeeded in renegotiating LNG prices, and RasGas agreed to nearly halve the price of LNG sold to Petronet LNG, from about US$12-13/MBtu to US$6-7/MBtu, as of 1 January 2016 and until late 2028. The new contract introduced market dynamics based on a crude price linked formula, unlike the earlier contract, where RasGas did not allow any change in pricing. It also raised the imported quantity by 1 Mt/year to 8.5 Mt/year until 2028-2029. As of August 2019, more than 50% of India’s LNG imports came from Qatar.

The Indian government seeks to expand the share of natural gas in its energy mix to 15% by 2030 (from the current 6%) but at the lowest cost possible. LNG imports, which started in 2004, now cover 47% of India's domestic consumption (2018).