India Petroleum Update
The roundup this week will concentrate on Indian moves to secure energy supplies through a range of initiatives in various parts of the world.
Kazakhstan
ONGC Videsh Ltd has opened a regional office in the capital city, Astana. This will be followed by ONGC selecting one of two blocks in the luctrative Caspian region - Satpayev and Makhanbet - for exploration.
Also OVL will spearhead Indian initiatives for involvement in oil infrastructure development in that country, especially in two pipelines, one to the Black Sea and the other to China.
Burma
There has been further traction on the idea of excluding Bangladesh in the Indo-Myanmar pipeline proposal.
"New Delhi and Rangoon have formed a techno-commercial committee to examine the possibility of laying a pipeline from Burma to India bypassing Bangladesh.
The joint group will also explore the possibilities of importing gas by ship in its liquefied (LNG) or compressed (CNG) state, Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said after the talks with his counterpart in New Delhi.
They have also assigned Italian Snam Progetti for a feasibility study for taking gas from Burma to India without using Bangladesh territory, sources in Dhaka said...
... Industry sources said that India is now trying to bypass Bangladesh from the project as New Delhi is not willing to give into Dhaka's conditions for allowing right of way for the cross-border pipeline over the territory of Bangladesh."
Sudan
Sudan could be the oil world's best kept secret, and India could be a major player in the development of the oil industry there. So says an article from the Sudan Tribune. Still the comparisons with Saudi Arabia are almost ridiculous. Sudan has proven reserves of 563 million barrels of oil - Saudi puts its reserves in the 200,000 million barrels range.
Turkey and Romania
On a visit to Turkey last month, Oil Minister Mani Shakar Aiyar, met his turkish counterpart Hilmi Guler, and agreed upon several avenues where the two nations could cooperate.
While Turkey does not have any hydrocarbon reserves to boast about, it is a critical state for accessing Western Caspian Sea and Northern Persian Gulf nations' reserves, due both to its cultural links to these states and also its strategic location that leads to a lot of pipelines from these regions to end up going through Turkey. Some the deals will result in India and Turkey investing in E&P in the other country, and forming joint ventures to invest in third countries. While Turkey would lead the consortia in Central Asia, India would do the same for South East and East Asia, Africa and Latin America. On the issue of cross-investment, while India was invited to invest in pipelines connecting Central Asia to Europe via Turkey, Turkey was invited to invest in Indian EOU-refineries in the coastal regions.
With Romania the cooperation would relate more to development of capabilities in the area of oil and gas equipment, including drilling rigs and refinery equipment. This includes tie-ups between organizations (trade, research and academic) in the two countries.
New World Warrior
GSPC, the latest entrant to the list of Indian corporates with big oil and gas reserves, via particularly its K-G Basin find, will now forage into the world market to get oil/gas equity and/or other cooperation in the field. Apparently it is, "Close to inking deals with companies in Libya, Oman and Qatar".
