Coleman stepped up its LNG marketing efforts in India when he personally joined an Australian government delegation to Gujarat last year, and signed a memorandum of understanding with Adani Enterprises to identify and develop commercial initiatives.
Petronet is already buying LNG from ExxonMobil's share of Chevron's $US54 billion (71.14 billion) Gorgon LNG project in WA's far north, and India's government has sought to free up impediments for LNG imports by removing controls on prices in the domestic market.
Reliance Industries' parent body Reliance Group started in the late 1970s as a textiles business before embarking on a "backward vertical integration" strategy that now sees it involved in polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics, petrochemicals, petroleum refining and oil and gas exploration and production, and is today fully integrated along the materials and energy value chain.
Reliance Group's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals), textiles, retail, infotel and "special economic zones".
While Japan has long been a customer for WA's gas since former Premier Charles Court first penned the North West Shelf deal that guaranteed domestic supply for the state and China's steel demand has fuelled WA's now-fading iron ore boom, India wants whatever it can get its hands on to relieve poverty and grow as an economic power.
Barnett will kick off his tour of India and Singapore this week, starting with Mumbai and New Delhi, where he is meeting senior national and provincial government officials, along with leading Indian resource companies including petroleum company Tata Petrodyne and the National Mineral Development Corporation, India's biggest iron ore producer.
"India offers many economic opportunities for WA, particularly as it seeks to diversify its energy supplies, with liquefied natural gas imports growing at an average annual rate of 22% over the past 10 years," Barnett said.
"This is an exciting time to visit India given the interest by Indian companies in WA's resource sector."
His visit will also include meetings with several Australian and international financial service providers.
While in Singapore, the Premier will deliver the keynote address at the In the Zone Singapore forum, an offshoot of The University of Western Australia's annual In the Zone conference in Perth that highlights WA's strong economic and business links across Asia.
"The Western Australian government established a trade and investment office in Singapore in 2012 and I look forward to returning to this global corporate and financial centre to build on our already close ties," Barnett said.
Barnett will also meet Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his visit.
Singapore is WA's fourth biggest trading partner, with total trade valued at nearly $A10 billion last year, when WA's total trade with India was valued at $1.9 billion.
WA has nearly 29% of all Australia's Singaporean-born residents while India is the state's fourth biggest source of overseas-born residents.
