India's largest natural gas importer has signed a supply agreement to receive liquefied natural gas from the United States, UPI reported. The deal calls for Houston's United LNG to supply a minimum of 4 million tons of LNG a year to India's Petronet for 20 years via the Main Pass Energy Hub in the Gulf of Mexico. It is Petronet's first U.S LNG supply off take agreement. Qatar's RasGas has been India's sole long-term supplier of natural gas, with two contracts for a total of 360 billion cubic feet, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. "As both a reliable and low cost LNG supplier, the USA is now the world's prime target to secure LNG, and this agreement with United is another big step forward to meeting India's growing demand for clean energy," Petronet LNG Managing Director and Chief Executive A.K. Balyan said in a release. India's demand for energy is growing at an annual rate of 5-6 percent, the government says. India is the world's sixth largest liquefied natural gas importer. The $14 billion LNG project, developed by United LNG and Freeport McMoRan Energy, hasn't been commissioned.
