India to invest $300b in energy

Mumbai: India will spend $300 billion (over the next five to seven years on oil exploration and production, said M.S. Srinivasan, the Oil Ministry's senior official.

"The exploration and production business will become a $5.2 trillion industry in the next five to seven years," Srinivasan told reporters on Saturday.

India, Asia's third-biggest oil consumer, is competing with countries such as Nigeria to attract exploration by global producers as domestic output falls.

The South Asian nation, the world's fastest-growing major economy after China, depends on imports for 70 per cent of its oil needs.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to invest $450 million over three years in exploration and production at San Cristobal oilfield in Venezuela, Srinivasan said.

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A team of government and company officials is scheduled to leave for Venezuela today to sign the agreement.

"We are going to spend about $450 million in exploration to start with over the next three years," Srinivasan told reporters on the sidelines of a conference, adding the oilfield had reserves of more than 200 million tonnes of crude and gas.

Last month, the Indian government said ONGC will acquire a 40 per cent stake in the oilfield located in the Orinoco oil belt in a joint venture with Venez-uelan national company PDVSA, which will hold the balance 60 per cent through its subsidiary.

India's state-run explorer, ONGC, will hold the stake through its overseas investment arm ONGC Videsh. The overseas arm is present in 29 oil and gas projects spread over 15 countries. Besides, the Indian government officials would be attending a meeting with officials in Pakistan and Iran this month to resolve certain issues raised by Pakistan on a proposed $7 billion tri-nation gas pipeline, Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora said.

India must also compete with China to buy oil assets abroad.

Expansion: Reliance in Latin America

Reliance Industries, India's most valuable company, plans to explore for oil and gas in Latin America and may start drilling services as part of chairman Mukesh Ambani's aim of building a global energy business.

"We are seeing two projects in Latin America and looking at a majority stake in one of them and will be the operator in at least one of them," Atul Chandra, president of the company's international business said in an interview in Mumbai.

Ambani needs to expand overseas to offset the impact of state controls on domestic gas, diesel and petrol prices.

Source: Gulfnews