Indian Oil Corporation plans to set up a condensate refinery in Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with ADNOC. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company may consider entering into a long-term tie-up with Indianoil for exporting close to one lakh barrels of condensate a day.

A UAE delegation, headed by that country's minister for petroleum and mineral resources, Obaid Bin Saif Al-Nasiri, showed interest in taking part in Indian Oil Corporation's proposed petrochemical plant at Panipat. The West Asian team also proposed supplying LNG (liquefied natural gas) to India.

Ramamurthy requested the visiting UAE minister for petroleum and mineral resources to confirm his country's interest in a memorandum of collaboration between Indian Oil Corporation and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company(ADNOC). The memorandum of collaboration covers refining, pipelines, marketing, research and development, training and consultancy.

Indianoil is also considering associating with UAE in refining, petrochemical products and rendering services in training and consultancy in West Asia. The national oil company has plans of collaborating with the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) as well, in setting up an oil terminal with a tankage of 3.3 lakh cubic metres and a dedicated jetty at the Hamariyah free zone.

Ramamurthy discussed the Indianoil proposals with the UAE minister, who heads a nine-member delegation to India. The UAE delegation will also meet the Union ministers for finance, commerce, external affairs and chemicals and fertilisers during its stay in the capital.

The Union petroleum minister explored possibilities of augmenting India's crude supply from UAE during his informal talk with Obaid Bin Saif Al-Nasiri. The country now imports close to four million tonne of crude and 0.91 million tonne ofpetroleum products from the UAE.

Crude oil imports from the UAE have increased over the years, going up from 2.97 million tonne in 1993-94 to 4.26 million tonne in 1996-97. Last year crude supplies from Abu Dhabi dropped slightly to 3.48 million tonne.

Petroleum products imports were also somewhat lower at 0.79 million tonne.The UAE is estimated to have proven reserves of 97.8 billion barrels of oil, or slightly less than 10 per cent of the world reserves. The Indian and UAE ministers for petroleum also discussed development of gas fields in the UAE by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and setting up of associated pipeline infrastructure and liquefaction plants. Indianoil and Engineers India Ltd (EIL) made presentations before the delegation on their technical expertise and managerial capabilities for providing various services in the UAE.