India Seeks additional...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[India today sought an additional 5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to meet its growing energy needs and has proposed to set up a gas-fired fertiliser plant in the Gulf nation to meets its urea needs. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, who arrived in Qatar on Monday to give the energy perspective to talks that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led high level delegation was having with Qatari leadership for enhancing bilateral cooperation, met Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister and Energy and Industry Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah. &quot;We had an excellent one-hour meeting. Attiyah is a great friend of India and promised to look into our LNG needs,&quot; Deora said. Deora told Attiyah that the nation was short of 5-7.5 MT a year of energy and wanted Qatar to bridge most of it. Singh, before reaching Doha on the second leg of his three-day maiden visit to the Gulf region, had described Qatar as India's most reliable energy partner. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with his Qatar counterpart Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabar Al Thani at a meeting in Doha. (PTI) India currently buys 5 million tons a year of LNG from RasGas of Qatar under a 25-year contract. The ex-ship price of $2.53 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) is considered a 'steal' in current times of LNG prices breaching $20 per mmBtu. When other nations sought review of gas price when crude oil prices spiked, Qatar stood ground and also came to New Delhi's rescue when it agreed to supply 1.5 million tonnes of more LNG on a short-term contract to restart the beleaguered Dabhol power plant in Maharasthra. Meanwhile, on Sunday, India and Qatar signed agreements on defence and security addressing maritime security and sharing of intelligence to prevent terrorist activities. The defence cooperation agreement includes issues of maritime security, while the pact on security and law enforcement would cover issues like common threat perceptions and sharing of data. The agreements were signed as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Qatar from Muscat on a two-day visit. Singh met Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al Thani for talks on enhancing trade, defence and energy cooperation. Earlier, Singh, accompanied by a high-level delegation, held wide-ranging discussions with the Omanese leadership on enhancing trade, economic and energy ties. In Doha, the Prime Minister was received by Qatar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmad Bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud and the Council of Ministers. He was also presented a guard of honour. (PTI)