India eyeing LNG imports from Russia

India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan met his counterparts from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, UAE, Angola and Venezuela on the margins of the OPEC international seminar.

During his meeting with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, the two Ministers agreed to expand bilateral energy cooperation. It was agreed to conduct a joint study at an early date for exploring the feasibility of crude and gas pipelines from Russia to India. India showed interest to import LNG and crude from Russia. The two sides also reviewed existing Indian investment projects in Russia and discussed the possibility of working together in exploration and production sector, according to minister’s statement.

He also held a meeting with Minister of Petroleum of Iran Bijan Namdar Zangenah where the parties discussed about Indian involvement in exploration and production projects in Iran and possibility of building gas pipeline from Iran to India through various alternate routes.

Pradhan met Minister of Energy & Industry of Qatar Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada. They discussed the existing bilateral issues including the long-term LNG supply to India. They also discussed the global scenario of LNG market and recent changes in it.

Pradhan met Minister of Petroleum of Angola Jose Maria Botelho Vasconcelos. He proposed that Indian public and private sector companies would like to invest in upstream and LNG sector of Angola. The two sides agreed to identify concrete projects of cooperation at an early date.

Shri Pradhan also met the Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA) during which they agreed to advance cooperation in various sectors of oil and gas.

In his meetings with representatives from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, UAE discussed various other forms of cooperation.

Image: petroleum.nic.in