Only Six of 75-80 Qatar LNG Cargoes Landed: Petronet Pushes for Early Delivery

Petronet LNG is negotiating with QatarEnergy to bring forward delivery of the LNG cargoes lost to this year’s disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, rather than waiting for a contractual recovery window that opens only in May 2028. Qatar was scheduled to supply 75 to 80 cargoes between March and October this year. Only about six have arrived.

The push is driven by the gap between spot and long-term prices. “Hopefully, we are trying to get it earlier, because once the situation normalises, there is a lot of appetite for long-term volume in the country,” managing director Akshay Kumar Singh told reporters at a post-earnings press conference on Monday. “You know what the spot price is and what the long-term price is. There is a huge gap. So efforts are there to get some more cargo, and the talk is going in a positive direction.”

Qatar, however, is not in a position to commit to a timeline. “We have been talking with them, but they are not in a position to commit. How can they commit when the situation is not conducive?” Singh said.

QatarEnergy halted LNG production and declared force majeure to affected buyers in early March, after attacks linked to the war involving Iran targeted Qatar’s energy infrastructure. Petronet responded by issuing force majeure notices to its own downstream buyers. Eight months on, Singh said, everyone is still awaiting normalisation.

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