The Hindu Business Line : Gas and more from Qatar

West Asia is important to India, as it is to the rest of the world, because of its role as the planet’s oil and gas supplier. It is from this perspective that the recent visit of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to Oman and Qatar should be seen. The visit was important because it provided yet another opportunity for cementing ties with the two West Asian economies, especially the latter, which is the biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the world and also to India. If New Delhi was expecting an immediate increase in LNG supply from Qatar, then it probably has reason to feel disappointed. Qatar, which has a long-term contract to supply 7.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum to India, has only “agreed to consider enhancing allocation” in the next one-two years. The key issue will be pricing because both existing and new global LNG capacities likely in the next three-four years have already been contracted. It remains to be seen if the boost to bilateral relations from the Prime Minister’s visit will help India in its quest for additional LNG from Qatar.

The visit, however, was considered to be productive in view of the two agreements signed on a structure "for joint maritime security and training" and a framework for sharing "of information and database on threats posed by extremists", money laundering and transnational crime. The Prime Minister also made a special plea for hydrocarbon-rich Qatar to invest some of its surplus cash in India at this time of financial crisis which, if acted upon, can turn out to be another significant aspect of the India-Qatar economic cooperation. This apart, another MoU was signed in Oman on labour issues, which has been a bone of contention between India and some West Asian countries to which there has been a heavy flow of Indian labour in recent times.

Clearly, the economic co-operation growth curve between India on the one hand, and Qatar and Oman on the other, has been rising steeply with two-way trade registering an exponential growth thanks to a phenomenal increase in imports from the two countries. According to official figures, while imports from Qatar increased from $187 million in 2003-04 to $2.5 billion in 2007-08, the corresponding figures for Oman are $51 million and $1.1 billion; India’s exports to the two countries rose by roughly 4 and 3.5 per cent respectively over the same period. What this comprehensively measures is not merely the increase in costly energy supply from the two West Asian economies but also the basic structure of the two-way exchange, which is what needs to be strengthened even further.

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