NEW DELHI: Petronet renewing a contract to buy 7.5 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar annually from 2029 for 20 years is the largest-ever extension of super-chilled fuel in the world, and will support India’s clean energy goals, officials said.

The original 25-year deal was signed in 1999 and supplies started in 2004. Qatar has since then never defaulted on a single cargo and neither did it slap penalties under take-or-pay clause when the Indian firm did not take deliveries because prices were too high, top Petronet officials said.

Supplies under the extended contract would start after Petronet takes deliveries of 52 cargoes it had failed to take in 2015-16 when prices had shot up sharply. While the volumes in contract have not changed, price changed four times, including the latest one when the contract extension was renegotiated.

The composition of the gas promised to be delivered has also changed. RasGas, which is now QatarEnergy, had originally signed to supply ‘rich’ or gas containing components of ethane and propane that is used as feedstock in petrochemical complexes.