India’s Petronet LNG, the country’s top gas importer, is set to sign a deal this month to extend its long-term LNG imports from Qatar beyond 2028.

This comes as Qatar, the world’s top LNG exporter, aims to expand its liquefaction capacity and has already signed long-term deals with major players in the industry.

Petronet currently has a 7.5-million metric ton per year (tpy) long-term LNG import deal with Qatar, while its promoters, Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp., and GAIL (India) Ltd., have a 1 million tpy deal. Indian companies had until the end of 2023 to negotiate with Qatar for the renewal of the deals beyond 2028.

“We are pretty close to signing the deal,” said India’s Oil Secretary Pankaj Jain.

Qatar, on the other hand, has ambitious plans to expand its liquefaction capacity to 126 million tpy by 2027 from the current 77 million tpy. The country has already signed long-term deals with European majors Shell, TotalEnergies, and Eni and has also secured long-term gas deals with China’s Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corp., and Bangladesh