India to ink 2.5mn tonnes LNG deal with Australia

New Delhi, Jan 3: India will sign a 2.5 million tonnes Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) deal with Australia in the next 60 days, to meet the increasing demand of the clean fuel in the country, Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan said here today.

The deal will be for a period of 25 years and its supply will begin from 2011, Mr Srinivasan told reporters here.

The natural gas will be coming from Australia's North West Shelf (NWS) venture, after negotiations between India and a joint venture of suppliers.

Mr Srinivasan said the country's domestic gas production was seen at 200 million cubic metres a day in the next five years.

The NWS joint venture, off Western Australia, currently has a production capacity of 11.6 million tonnes of LNG per year and will increase to 16.3 million from late 2008.

The six equal partners in the joint-venture are Chevron, BP Plc, Woodside, BHP Billiton Plc Ltd, Japan Australia LNG (MiMi) Pty Ltd, a joint-venture of Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsui and Co and Woodside's 34 per cent shareholder, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

UNI