Petronet LNG Ltd, India's largest importer of liquefied natural gas has marked a treaty to source 1.1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually for the next two financial years.

Petronet's head of finance A. Sengupta told Reuters that the deal was made to meet the growing energy demand of the nation.

Another deal is made between state-run gas utility GAIL (India) and Japanese trader Marubeni to source LNG for three fiscal years.

Petronet also announced that its net profit get doubled in the quarter ending December 31, 2010 to about Rs 171 crore. The company also told that the entire volume mentioned in the deal is sold to the end users.

Dahej in western Gujarat is the hub for Petronet, where it has its LNG regasification plant which operates a 10 million tones LNG annually. Petronet supply this LNG to state run utilities like Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and GAIL (India) Ltd which further sell LNG to the industrial users.

The company is also planning to build a new jetty at Dahej in July-Sept 2013, to facilitate the terminal to enhance its capacity. Another terminal being constructed by Petronet in Kochi in southern India also planning to doubled its capacity from 2.5 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes a year. The Kochi plant is expected to be commissioned in April-May 2012.

A statement reveals that Petronet's income has increased from Rs 2261.31 crore in Q3 2009 to Rs 3633.05 crore this fiscal. With December 2010 contributing the highest ever gas send out of 120 trillion British thermal units.