“Shell and ConocoPhillips have offered us (India) LNG,” said SC Tripathi at an Australian oil and gas exploration opportunities seminar in India.

“They wanted to know the demand for natural gas in India and the current deficit.”

He said ConocoPhillips was selling LNG to South-East Asia at a price similar to what India pays in a contract with Iran.

New Delhi has contracted five million tonnes of LNG a year from Iran for 25 years at a delivered price of $4.10 per million British thermal unit (mbtu), said Tripathi.

Iranian LNG is scheduled to arrive up to 2009-10, but there was still an unmet demand of 50 million cubic metres of natural gas per day – about 13 million tonnes of LNG – that Australia could fill, he said.

Shell is partner in the Gorgon gas project, due for first production after 2010 from Western Australia, while ConocoPhillips has operated the Bayu-Undun LNG project and pipeline in the Northern Territory since approval was granted in July this year. It is understood both companies are looking for markets.

The secretary said talks were in a very preliminary stage and that commercial negotiations would take place between the companies.