Qatar on Friday agreed to increase supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet India's requirements and also facilitate participation of Indian companies in the oil and gas sector. The Gulf nation has also shown interest in cooperation in the area of banking supervision and exchange of information to combat money laundering and terror financing.
“In the hydrocarbon sector, Qatar conveyed readiness to increase supply of LNG to meet India's requirements and to facilitate the participation of Indian companies in the oil and gas sector in Qatar,” said an official statement issued after discussions of the India-Qatar High Level Monitoring Mechanism (HLMM), co-chaired by T.K.A Nair, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Khalid Bin Mohammad Al-Attiyah, Minister of State for International Cooperation of the State of Qatar.
The HLMM was set up pursuant to a decision taken by Dr. Singh and Qatar during the former's visit to Qatar in November 2008. It is mandated to monitor the progress in the implementation of the areas of cooperation agreed to by the leaders of the two countries in order to enhance bilateral cooperation.
Currently, India is importing 7.5 million tonnes of LNG annually from Qatar and Indian companies such as NTPC and Petronet are in discussions with that country for addition 5-10 million tonnes per year. Qatar is the biggest supplier of gas to the United State, but due to gas supply surplus in America, Qatar is diverting its supplies to Asian countries like India and China.
The two sides reviewed the progress made in areas of cooperation and agreed on specific steps to further intensify cooperation in areas such as petrochemicals, fertilisers, power, banking and finance sector, civil aviation and HRD.
