Public sector Petronet LNG Ltd will deliver liquefied natural gas imported from Qatar at $3.6-37 per million BTU, matching the prevailing price of domestic natural gas.

"We have undertaken a drastic cost cutting exercise along the LNG chain that would make the delivered cost of LNG comparable with the ruling market price of domestic natural gas," petroleum secretary B K Chaturvedi said.

While the Budget '03-04 cut down customs duty for LNG plants from 25 per cent to 5 per cent, PLL has scaled down the regassification cost. Besides, state-owned gas firm GAIL has been asked to rationalise pipeline traffic.

"We anticipate the delivered cost of LNG at Delhi would be $3.6-3.7 per million BTU (British Thermal Unit)," he said while pointing that the subsidised domestic natural gas at the customer's door costs $2.75 per million BTU.

Private firms are already selling natural gas at close to $4 per million BTU in Gujarat and "PLL will not have any problem in finding customers," Chaturvedi, who also is the chairman of PLL, said.

RasGas of Qatar, which had last year signed an agreement with PLL for supplying 5 million tonnes of LNG at a price linked to basket of crude oil with floor and ceiling price of $16 and $24 per barrel, has also agreed to cut its supply price by 50 cents per million BTU.