India's Natural Gas Import to Remain Unaffected

India's natural gas import will remain unaffected by some Middle-East countries cutting off diplomatic ties with Qatar that supplies most of the country's gas demand, officials and gas company executive said.

Indian officials are in touch with Qatari counterparts and there is no impact of the tension in the Gulf region on gas supply, an Oil Ministry official said. Petronet LNG, India's biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, has a contract to import 8.5 million tonnes of LNG a ..

"Our business is not getting affected," said Prabhat Singh, CEO of Petronet LNG. "It will take time to understand its impact. But right now there is no issue with our ships or with bunkering."

Petronet receives an LNG cargo every third day with each cargo containing about 150,000 cubic meters of gas, Prabhat Singh said. One LNG cargo is worth about Rs 150 crore at current prices, he said. "There's no problem with cargoes. Had there been any problem, we could have immediately known," he said.

Qatar is one of the biggest producers of natural gas in the world. India has a long-term contract to purchase natural gas from Qatar. Gas prices are linked with crude oil prices.