Petronet LNG may look at constructing a fourth liquefied natural gas import facility in its native India as gas demand in the country continues to grow, according to chief executive AK Singh.

"We believe gas demand will continue to grow and we will need avenues to meet such requirement," he told the Press Trust of India in an interview.

"We could possibly look at setting up a fourth LNG import and regassification terminal… these are preliminary thoughts, and we will come back to you once plans are firmed up."

The company currently operates the 17.5 million tonnes per annum Dahej receiving and regasification terminal, currently undergoing expansion to a capacity of 22.5 million tonnes per annum, and the 5 million tpa Kochi import facility – both of which are land-based terminals.

Adding the planned 5 million tpa of additional capacity at Dahej – already the world’s largest import facility - involves construction of new jetty able to also handle propane and ethane shipments, plus an additional LNG storage tanks and bays for the truck-loading of LNG.