Petronet LNG Ltd is in talks with US-based Cheniere Energy Inc and Freeport LNG to source liquefied natural gas. This was stated by Mr A.K. Balyan, Managing Director and CEO of PLL, here on Thursday.

“We have had discussions with them. Their team was here. In the US, companies work on a different model. We have sought some details from them. We have to see whether they have permission to export LNG and what is the progress of these projects,” he added.

According to reports, in 2010 Cheniere Energy and Freeport LNG, along with Macquarie Group Ltd, had announced plans to construct facilities along the Gulf of Mexico to export LNG to Asia and possibly West Asia. Cheniere plans to start exporting LNG from its US terminal in 2015.

Petronet gets 7.5 million tonne of LNG annually from Qatar for its Dahej terminal and has a deal for 1.5 million tonne annually from Australia's Gorgon project from 2014 for the Kochi plant. It has also recently signed an initial pact with Russia's Gazprom to annually buy 2.5 million tonne of LNG. The company is constantly looking for additional volumes of LNG on long, medium and spot basis, he said.

On PLL's plans to build a new LNG terminal in the country's East Coast, he said that the company was looking at a capacity of up to five million tonne annually. It is doing a feasibility study. Petronet already has a 10 million tonne per annum terminal at Dahej and plans another at Kochi.

At the company's annual general meeting, Mr G.C. Chaturvedi, Petroleum Secretary, who is Petronet's Chairman, told shareholders India's gas demand currently is 179 million standard cubic metres a day while local supply is less than 140 mscmd.

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