India's Petronet Expects Full Qatar LNG Supply After Hormuz Disruption

Petronet LNG expects to resume full contracted volumes from Qatar after disruptions tied to the Strait of Hormuz closure and LNG supply outages.

(Reuters) — India's top gas importer Petronet LNG PLNG.NS expects to receive its full contracted amount of liquefied natural gas from Qatar once the geopolitical situation in the Middle East stabilizes, chief executive A. K. Singh said on May 4.

Qatar, India's largest LNG supplier, has a contract to supply 7.5 million metric tons per year of LNG to Petronet, equivalent to 9-10 cargoes per month.

However, supplies were halted in March following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran struck two of Qatar's 14 LNG production trains, forcing it to declare force majeure.

Qatar has said repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years.

Singh said Petronet had not been receiving cargoes from the trains that were damaged in attacks.

"We hope and expect our supplies will not be cut," Singh told a press conference, adding that Qatar had notified the company of force majeure for May deliveries.

Petronet is building three new LNG storage tanks - two at a new import terminal in eastern India and one at Kochi terminal in the south - and Singh added that it is also scouting for land to build four additional tanks near its 22.5 million ton per year Dahej terminal in western Gujarat state.