Revisiting Natural Gas Imports for India

In January 2005, India signed a long-term deal for 7.5 MMT/annum LNG from Iran based on an indexed price, which is considered expensive at today?s oil prices, especially compared to Qatari gas. The Qatari price is lower than many contracts and this may not even be the lowest feasible price. The overarching issue for pipeline gas is one of contracting: for the delivered price, what separate metrics should one evolve for supplier nation costs, transport and transit? This relates to how the contract is set up, as a tripartite agreement between Iran, India and Pakistan, or a pair of bilateral agreements with Iran and with Pakistan.