Include shale gas on your New Delhi agenda: Lawmaker to Kerry

Washington: A US lawmaker has requested Secretary of State John Kerry to include the issue of shale gas export to India in his agenda when he travels to New Delhi next week for the India-US Strategic Dialogue. “As you travel to India for the US-India Strategic Dialogue, I urge you to include on the agenda US energy trade, especially US exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG),” Congressman Charles W Boustany, said in a letter to Kerry. [caption id=“attachment_889307” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AP photo[/caption] He noted that the move would strengthen partnership with India and help in addressing its increasing energy needs. Kerry will be travelling to India from June 23 to 25. “US energy exports can enhance American power and influence by strengthening our ties to important allies and trading partners like India, and allowing the US to help its strategic partners in times of market instability,” the Republican lawmaker from Louisiana said. “The US has a unique opening to provide its allies with steady, reliable energy source. India is the world’s sixth largest importer of LNG with expected demand to rise annually at a rate of five to six per cent until 2020,” Boustany said, noting that the country forms a huge potential market for US energy exports. “Our energy companies have a critical business opportunity to meet this growing demand because of growing natural gas production and increasing supply,” he argued. Recently, India’s largest natural gas distributor ONGC had agreed to buy 3.5 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas a year from US firm Cheniere Energy for the next two decades. “Our energy sector is developing and securing relationships with important allies, and it is vital that the US government do the same to support our domestic energy producers,” Boustany wrote to Kerry. He said the US has a unique opportunity to provide its allies with steady, reliable supply of clean energy to reduce dependence on crude oil imports from the Middle East, and provide reliable energy to their population. “Open trade and security discussions among top officials on both sides are critical to ensuring success of this effort. As you visit India next week, I hope you will join me in expressing to the Indian government just how important this relationship is, and how committed the US is in further developing it, including through more robust energy trade,” Boustany said. PTI