India's top gas importer Petronet LNG (PLNG.NS) is likely to sign a deal this month to extend its long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Qatar to beyond 2028, India's Oil Secretary said on Wednesday.

Petronet has a 7.5-million metric ton per year (tpy) long-term LNG import deal with Qatar and its promoters Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL.NS) and GAIL (India) Ltd (GAIL.NS) has a 1 million tpy deal.

Indian companies had until the end of 2023 to negotiate with Qatar for renewal of the deals to beyond 2028.

"We are pretty close to signing the deal," Oil Secretary Pankaj Jain told reporters.

Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, aims to expand its liquefaction capacity to 126 million tpy by 2027 from 77 million and has signed long-term deals with European majors Shell (SHEL.L), TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) and ENI (ENI.MI).

It has also signed long-term gas deals with China's Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corp and Bangladesh.