RasGas and Petronet have entered into a “binding” sale and purchase agreement (SPA) for supply of an additional 1mn tonnes per year (tpy) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India.
The additional quantity of LNG will be utilised for “onward sale” to four Indian entities- Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, GAIL (India) and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.
Further, RasGas and Petronet LNG Limited have entered into a “binding agreement” to adjust some aspects of their existing long term LNG sale and purchase agreement (SPA) of 7.5mn tonnes per year, signed by the parties in 1999, which laid the foundation for LNG business in India.
“Such adjustments will protect and preserve the overall value of the contract,” a joint statement said.
As per such agreement, LNG volumes not taken by Petronet from RasGas during 2015 will be taken and paid for by Petronet during the remaining term of the SPA and will maintain its current level of oil indexation with the oil index more closely reflecting the prevailing oil prices.
RasGas CEO Hamad Mubarak al-Muhannadi said: “These positive developments, including the new SPA, demonstrate the strength of our long-term relationship with Petronet and commitment to growing sales into India to meet its expanding clean energy needs”.  
Petronet CEO, Prabhat Singh said: “These developments highlight both parties confidence in the Indian market and our commitment to LNG as a cleaner, more efficient source of energy”.
RasGas is one of the main suppliers of LNG into India and has been supplying Petronet since 2004. Petronet is the largest importer of LNG into India and is the owner and operator of the country’s largest receiving terminal at Dahej (Gujarat) and also the Kochi LNG terminal in Kerala state.
RasGas is a Qatari joint stock company established in 2001 by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil RasGas Inc.
RasGas acts as the operating company for and on behalf of the owners of the LNG projects - RL, RL (II) and RL3.
With operations facilities based in Ras Laffan Industrial City RasGas’ principal activities are to extract, process, liquefy, store and export LNG and its derivatives from the North Field.
RasGas exports to countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas with a total LNG production capacity of approximately 37mn tonnes per year.
Petronet is promoted by ONGC, GAIL (India), IOCL and BPCL for import, storage and regasification of LNG. Petronet LNG started commercial operations of its first LNG terminal at Dahej, Gujarat (India) in January 2004, which is operating at 10mn tonnes per year (tpy) and is currently under expansion to 15mn tpy.
The second LNG terminal of 5mn tpy was commissioned in August 2013 at Kochi, Kerala.
LNG bunkering, storage, reload and gassing up and cooling down services are also being provided at the Kochi terminal.