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April 11, 2005
Russian/Indian Oil News: Gazprom and India's ONGC Agree to Cooperate
Gazprom of Russia and Oil and Natural Gas Corpation (ONGC) of India have signed a memorandum of understanding.
by Andrew McKay
HNN Economic Correspondent
Moscow, Russian Federation (HNN) – The document was signed by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, India's oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and ONGC chairman Subir Raha, at their meeting in Moscow on Monday, Gazprom said.
Gazprom (OTC: OGZPF) and ONGC will consider opportunities for cooperation in oil and gas projects in India, Russia and some other countries, and also in the transportation and selling of products in India and other markets, as specified in the memorandum. In addition, the two companies will consider liquified gas supplies to India and some other markets, Gazprom said.
Among possible areas of cooperation, the Russian gas company specified construction of advanced processing facilities, the export of products to the Asia-Pacific region, construction of trunk pipelines and underground gas storage facilities in India and some other countries.
ONGC Group is India's largest company in terms of proved hydrocarbon reserves and production. The Indian government has an 84.11 percent stake in the company. Its main area of activity is the exploration and development of oilfields. ONGC currently runs 115 oilfields.
The largest of them is the Mumbai oilfield, accounting for 40 percent of India's total production. ONGC is involved in 13 foreign projects in 10 countries. It is negotiating with Russia's Rosneft to buy a minority stake in Yuganskneftegaz, formerly YUKOS's key production arm. Talks with Rosneft president Sergei Bogdanchikov are due to take place today.
Industry observers say ONGC is also interested in east Siberian projects. OVL, part of ONGC, holds a 20 percent stake in Russia's vast Sakhalin-2 project, in which Rosneft is also involved. ONGC is involved in talks with Rosneft on the Vankorsky oilfield in eastern Siberia, holding oil reserves of 5.13 million barrels.
India's oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar was in Kazakhstan last week for talks on investment projects, before arriving in Moscow on Monday, on his second trip in four months.
Andrew McKay B.A., Ph.D. (Cambridge), has been at the University of Nottingham since 1992. His research interests are in development economics, with particular interests in poverty and income distribution; trade policy in developing countries; agriculture; statistical issues; and labour markets. His work is predominantly applied, with a mainly microeconomic focus; much of it involves analysis of household level data. He has received research funding from various sources, including DFID, the World Bank, and the Ford Foundation, and has undertaken advisory work for a range of development agencies including DFID, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the OECD Development Centre. He has published a large number of articles, many of these in refereed journals. These include articles in many of the main development journals, such as The Journal of Development Economics, World Development, The Journal of International Trade and Economic Development, The Journal of Development Studies and The Journal of African Economies. He teaches a range of third year and taught postgraduate modules on development-related topics, and acts as Course Director of the Masters Programmes in the School of Economics.
