Petroleum minister Murli Deora met Baimurat Muradov, head of state agency for hydrocarbon resources, Turkmenistan and agreed upon a roadmap to take forward cooperation between the two sides in various activities in the hydrocarbon sector.
Accompanied by petroleum secretary, MS Srinivasan, and CMDs of ONGC, IOC and OVL along with senior officials of MoPNG, Deora made a brief stop-over at Asghabat enroute to Moscow.
An official press release said the visiting Indian delegation was briefed about the Turkmen strategy to fulfill the commitments for gas export and oil production. Refering to OMEL (JV between OVL and Mittal-Arcelor) which has recently acquired a stake of 30% in Block No. 11 & 12 in the Turkmen sector of Caspian Sea, the authorities expressed hope for greater participation by OMEL and other Indian Oil & Gas companies in Turkmenistan.
Muradov outlined the three directions in which the Indo-Turkmen energy co-operation can proceed. These include Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) in the off-shore Caspian Shelf for Oil and Gas blocks,
Service contracts for Indian companies in the on-shore Hydrocarbon facilities as on-shore PSA is not allowed in Turkmenistan and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project on which the 10th steering committee meeting will be held in Islamabad by end 2007.
?Muradov invited the Indian side to participate and work in all these three spheres. He assured of full co-operation in completing the formalities for applying for PSAs in the Caspian sector. In on-shore facilities the Indian companies should sign service contractsby participating in tenders. He reiterated that Turkmenistan is interested in Indian participation owing to India?s known expertise in these sectors,? the release said.