Russia welcomes India as possible oil partner

[NVMojo]

deals are being considered by countries all around the Bush tour!!

February 23, 2005

MOSCOW The Russian Industry and Energy Ministry said on Tuesday that the country was interested in working with Indian businesses to develop its oil fields, amid speculation that India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. might buy into the once-core subsidiary of the former oil giant Yukos.
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At a meeting late Monday, the industry and energy minister, Viktor Khristenko, told his Indian counterpart, Mani Shankar Aiyar, that fields in the Far East, eastern Siberia, the Barents Sea and the oil-rich Timan Pechora region could offer opportunities for Indian investment, the ministry said Tuesday in a statement.
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"Russia is open to considering offers by the Indian side to participate in projects with Gazprom, Rosneft and Transneft," the statement cited Khristenko as saying, referring to Russia's natural gas monopoly, its main state-owned oil company and the state-controlled pipeline operator, respectively.
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"We are happy with the level and the character of Indian-Russian relations," Khristenko said. "They must be maintained and developed."
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Gazprom's chief executive, Alexei Miller, and Subir Raha, the chairman and managing director of the Oil and Natural Gas Corp., India's largest explorer, signed a memorandum in Moscow on Monday to expand cooperation, the Russian company said.
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The partners will examine joint projects to develop oil and gas in both countries and may market liquefied gas in Asia. They may also build oil and gas refineries in India, Russia and other countries to market fuel in Asia.
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India imports 70 percent of its crude oil, a figure that is expected to rise to 85 percent over the next 20 years. Indian companies such as Oil and Natural Gas and Reliance Industries, the country's biggest non-state refiner, are acquiring oil and gas fields abroad to secure supplies. Gazprom holds about 16 percent of the world's gas reserves.
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Aiyar said Monday that Oil and Natural Gas was unburdened by debt and could borrow as much as $25 billion, some of which could go into Russian deals. India is one of the largest energy consumers in Asia.
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"The Indian company is ready to invest a significant part of this sum in energy projects in Russia," Interfax cited an unidentified source in Russia's Industry and Energy Ministry as saying Tuesday.
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Interfax's source said Aiyar had expressed interest in acquiring part of the former Yukos subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz during a meeting late Monday with Khristenko, Interfax said.
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The West Siberian unit, which pumps a million barrels of crude a day, was sold in a disputed auction in December as part of what was widely seen as a politically charged clampdown on Yukos and its jailed founder, Mikhail Khodorkovksy. The unit was later bought by Rosneft.
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more...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/02/22/business/rusoil.html

[psholtz]

1. Russia and India go way back..

Russia has long had kinda close ties to India.. wasn't it Russia that originally gave India the nuclear bomb? (or am I not remembering history correctly)..

[bloodyjack]

4. No, India's had a nuclear program since around after independence

A relative of mine was employed at the first Indian nuclear power plant in Tarapur in the 60s

here's a fairly concise history of the Indian nuclear program: http://members.tripod.com/~no_nukes_sa/precis.html

[psholtz]

7. atoms for peace

well OK, Eisenhower's "Atoms For Peace" and all that, but that was nuclear power, not nuclear bombs.

The article you posted makes it look like the India's gradually developed the bomb on their own, although I believe it's relatively well understood in diplomatic circles that the bomb-making technology was leaked to them by the Soviets..

btw, it's a good article, though.. thanks!

[acmavm]

2. Well thank goodness they have all those American jobs so that they

can afford to buy Russian crude.

[NVMojo]

3. Pay for Iran gas on arrival

New Delhi, February 22, 2005|03:29 IST


India would only need to pay for the gas once it arrives at its borders from Iran, Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said in an exclusive interview to HT. It’s on a "take-and-pay" basis, he added.

According to the minister, an international consortium — the components of which are to be determined — will handle all other details like building the gas pipeline from Iran to India, through Pakistan, and will also provide the required security guarantees in consultation with the governments concerned.

On the subject of a transit corridor through Pakistan to allow India road access to Iran and further on to Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, he said India would have to talk "directly" to Pakistan as Iran would not

more...

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1253519,0008.htm

[oneighty]

5. India

was so much easier when she was a colony. But then so was much of Asia.

China, India and Japan are all going to be competing for oil either buying or selling.

And here we are separated from our oil by vast oceans.

180

Sigh

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Makes ya wunder, why DID gawd put US oil on the wrong side of the globe??

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Musta been a bad hair day up in heaven . .

:silly: