Gazprom Headquarters today hosted a working meeting between Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Shri M.S. Srinivasan, India’s Secretary for Petroleum and Natural Gas. Also participating in the meeting were Ramesh Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC Group and Ranbir Butola, Managing Director of ONGC Videsh, a subsidiary of ONGC.

The parties addressed the outlook of cooperation between Russia and India in the oil and gas sector and examined the global energy market development trends. The meeting expressed a common opinion on the need to intensify collaboration between Gazprom and Indian companies when developing natural gas processing and gas chemicals capacities in Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

The participants also discussed issues of cooperation in the area of oil and gas field exploration and development, gas transmission and distribution systems development in India, Russia and third countries, as well as cooperation in the LNG sector. Furthermore, the parties addressed issues surrounding the implementation of a Production Sharing Agreement on Block 26 in the Bay of Bengal.

Reference:

Firth largest in Asia after Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia and China, India’s proven natural gas reserves account for 1.08 tcm (as of January1, 2007), with 70 per cent of the reserves located in the Bombay High basin and the state of Gujarat.

Over 2006 India produced 31.8 bcm of natural gas, which was entirely supplied to domestic customers. The share of natural gas and oil in India’s primary energy mix accounts for 9 and 30 per cent respectively.

India’s Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas manages and coordinates oil and natural gas production, processing, gas and refined products distribution, crude oil and refined products exports and imports.

Being India’s largest state company (84 per cent owned by the State) in terms of proven reserves and hydrocarbon production, ONGC Group is mainly focused on exploration and development of oil and gas fields, production of oil and natural gas.

On February 21, 2005, Gazprom and ONGC Group signed the Memorandum of Understanding, agreeing to cooperate in the following directions:

• developing natural gas, oil and other hydrocarbon output deep processing capacities in Russia, India and third countries;
• supplying oil and gas refining products to Asia Pacific and South Asia, India in the first place;
• designing, constructing, operating and maintaining gas mains and networks of underground gas storage facilities;
• promoting sci-tech cooperation in the major gas industry sectors;
• collaborating in staff qualification upgrading & re-training.

On October 4, 2000, India’s Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Gazprom and GAIL (Gas Authority of India Limited) signed the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) on Block 26 offshore India’s Bay of Bengal. The PSA contemplates hydrocarbons prospecting, production and marketing activities.