OREANDA-NEWS. October 19, 2011. India’s Petronet LNG aims to get 12 to 14 spot cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the quarter ending Dec. 31, its chief executive A. K. Balyan said on Tuesday, to meet surging local demand amid falling output, Reuters reports. In the September quarter, the gas importer regassified 42 cargoes, of which 12 were spot cargoes.

"We hope to maintain the trend of the previous quarter. Spot LNG cargoes should be 12 to 14," he said.

Petronet, which operates a 10 million-tonne-a-year LNG regassification plant at Dahej in western Gujarat state, plans to raise it to 15 million tonnes a year by end-2015.

It plans to invest 30 billion Indian rupees (USD 612.8 million) and commission a 5-million-tonne per year Kochi LNG terminal in southern India in the last quarter of the next calendar year.

Besides, the gas importer is considering building a new terminal of about 5 million tonnes a year on the east coast, Balyan said.

Petronet currently gets 7.5 million tonnes of LNG per year from Qatar for Dahej and has a deal with Australia's Gorgon project for 1.5 million tonnes per year of LNG supplies from 2014 for its Kochi plant.

Earlier this year, it signed an initial pact with Russia's Gazprom to buy 2.5 million tonnes LNG annually.

Balyan also said Petronet is in talks to buy 'minority' stakes in LNG projects in Australia as it seeks to secure supplies for expanding capacities.

Petronet sells LNG to state-run firms Indian Oil Corp (IOC) , Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and GAIL (India) Ltd , which then supply to industrial users.