India's Petronet to get spot LNG cargo early Sept-trade.

India's Petronet LNG (PLNG.BO) will get a spot cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar's RasGas in early September, a trade source said on Friday, the first in eight months to plug supplies hit by a shutdown of oil and gas fields on the west coast.

"The cargo will reach India's Dahej port in early September. Though it is a sort of distress purchase but prices may not be very high as Petronet has good relations with RasGas," the source said.

Petronet LNG's chief, A.K. Balyan, declined comment on the deal. Last week, he said the cargo was likely to reach India on Aug. 20. [ID:nSGE6790IV]

Petronet LNG, which operates a 10 million tonnes a year LNG regasification plant at Dahej in western Gujarat state, halted spot LNG imports from last December due to a 50 percent rise in an LNG sourcing deal with Qatar's RasGas.

Also, India's appetite for spot LNG has been restricted due to a significant increase in local gas output and inadequate pipeline infrastructure in the country.

The Panna-Mukta fields on the western coast have been shut since July 20. Before the shutdown, the fields were producing about 40,000 barrels per day of crude and about 5.5 million cubic metres of gas, the head of offshore operations at state-run Oil and Natural Gas Crop (ONGC.BO), Sudhir Vasudeva, said last week.

Source : reuters.com