India, Norway likely to drill for oil together

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

‘IOC must pump in Rs 40k cr a year to grow’HPCL net loss narrows to Rs 137 crOil falls amid US economic recoveryIndianOil declares 1:1 bonus

New Delhi, Aug 30: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will tie up with Norway’s state-owned oil firm Norsk Hydro to jointly explore for oil and gas in the Gulf region.

Petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who is on an official visit to Norway, is pushing for a joint venture between Indian and Norwegian firms for exploration in India and third countries, said Talmiz Ahmad, additional secretary (international cooperation), ministry of petroleum and natural gas.

Speaking from Stavanger, Mr Ahmad, who is accompanying Mr Aiyar, said ONGC and Norsk Hydro were negotiating an MoU on joint collaboration and the pact was likely to be signed this week.

“They have shown interest in participating in our E&P. We have shown interest in exploring in their seas,” he said.

A consortium of Indian Oil Corp and Oil India Ltd is also talking to StatOil of Norway for a similar exploration tie-up particularly for Russia.

“Discussions between IOC-Oil and StatOil are in an advanced state and an MoU is to be signed in 2-3 weeks,” he said. However, he did not give details.

During his visit Mr Aiyar would push for a tie-up with Norway in the areas of research and development, technology, safety and training.

“The minister’s visit is to explore possibilities of collaboration in third countries, particularly in the Caspian Sea region, Africa, Latin America and the Gulf region,” he said.

Mr Ahmad said the Norwegian petroleum directorate, Norway’s upstream oil regulator, has the potential to become a model for India’s directorate general of hydrocarbon which the government wants to make the regulator for upstream oil and gas exploration and production business.