In 2023, India imported 10.6 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar, accounting for nearly half of its total imports of the same year.

QatarEnergy and India’s Petronet signed a 20-year liquified natural gas agreement on Tuesday, the Qatari company announced in a statement, marking their biggest such deal to date.

The signing of the sales and purchase agreement took place in Goa, India, with the attendance of QatarEnergy’s President and CEO, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, and Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

“This agreement is another key milestone in the long-standing energy partnership between Qatar and India and comes on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the first LNG shipment to India,” Al-Kaabi, who is also Doha’s minister of state for energy affairs, said.

Under the new deal, Qatar would provide India with 7.5 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) of LNG starting from May 2028, the expiration date of an existing deal between the two countries. The existing contract represents some 35 percent of India’s LNG imports.

“We believe that this new agreement, with our valued customers Petronet LNG and its esteemed shareholder companies, will further strengthen the relationship with India and support its vision to increase the contribution of natural gas in its energy mix,” Al-Kaabi added.

In 1999, QatarEnergy—formerly known as Qatar Petroleum—and Petronet signed their first such deal over the delivery of 7.5 MTPA of LNG to the latter. Both countries then signed an agreement in 2015 for the supply of an additional 1 MTPA of LNG, bumping up the volumes to 8.5 MTPA.

India is among Qatar’s top Asian consumers alongside Japan, China, and South Korea. In 2023, India imported 10.6 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar, accounting for nearly half of its total imports of the same year, according to Reuters, citing data from LSEG.

The deal comes as India seeks to increase its usage of natural gas to 15 percent by 2030 to cut emissions.

Qatar, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter after the United States, is on track to dominate gas production under its North Field Expansion Project, the largest of its kind in the industry.

The multibillion project comes under Qatar’s LNG endeavours and is split into two parts; the North Field East (NFE) and the North Field South (NFS).

NFE is set to ramp up Qatar’s LNG production from 77 to 110 mtpa by 2025, as the NFS will increase the production capacity from 110 to 126 mtpa by 2026.

Overall, the project is set to boost Qatar’s LNG production by more than 63 percent while adding 48 mtpa to global production.

QatarEnergy inked eight partnership deals with key energy giants globally throughout 2022-2023 for the project, namely TotalEnergies, Eni, ConocoPhillips, Shell, and ExxonMobil.

Qatar’s Al-Kaabi had said last November that the Gulf state will provide a substantial 40 percent of all new LNG supplies by 2029.