Published: September 24, 2019 |

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Energy and business ties between the United States and Indian are the spotlight during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s weekend visit to Houston.

Hours after landing in the Bayou City, the prime minister held a private roundtable on Saturday evening with CEOs from 16 energy companies at the Post Oak Hotel in Houston’s posh Galleria district.

Modi’s energy roundtable included the signing of a $2.5 billion deal between Houston liquefied natural gas company Tellurian and India-based Petronet LNG.

Touted as one of the largest liquefied natural gas deals in U.S. history, Petronet LNG will be investing $2.5 billion in exchange to receive 5 million metric tons of LNG per year from Tellurian’s planned Driftwood LNG export terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Among the attendees of energy roundtable were Tellurian CEO Meg Gentle and Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of the Houston oilfield service company Baker Hughes.

David Dickson, CEO of the Hosuton oilfield service company McDermott International, and Ashok Belani, executive vice president of technology for the oilfield service company Schlumberger, were also in attendance.

Modi’s energy roundtable took place ahead of the Sunday morning “Howdy, Modi!” rally where the Indian prime minister is expected to appear with President Donald Trump at NRG Stadium. The two leaders are expected to speak about wider cooperation between the two nations.

Tellurian is one of three corporate sponsors of the event alongside Walmart and the Indian hotel chain Oyo.

With India getting more than half of its electricity from coal, Modi set a goal to have natural gas make up 15 percent of India’s power generation energy mix by 2030. As a result, Petronet and other companies are building new LNG import terminals and expanding the number of natural gas pipelines to encourage wider use of the cleaner-burning fuel.

Source: Houston Chronicle

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