The making of an LNG bonanza

Costly imports, weak domestic prices and poor infrastructure have stymied India’s gas market. But things are changing, fast

Late last year, Petronet LNG put its marker on the global liquefied natural gas market with a watershed renegotiation of its 25-year supply contract with RasGas. India's biggest gas importer walked away from the table with a near 50% price cut-plus the waiver of a Rs120bn ($1.8bn) penalty it should have incurred for taking less LNG in 2015 than contracted.  For Qatari negotiators, the deal was a pragmatic recognition of changed market realities, and of the need to nurture India's embryonic gas market. For Petronet, which has contracts for around 8.5m tonnes a year from RasGas, and for Indian consumers in general, it was a fantastic financial result: a saving of about $5 per million British t