This one may pour cold water on the country?s dream to get $8-billion investments for oil & gas exploration under Nelp-VII. An annual ranking of countries on oil stability, by US-based energy and consultancy firm PIRA, for 2007, has assigned India a score of 3, of a possible maximum of 17.

The ranking has placed India way behind China. India?s score has, however, improved from 1 in 2006, on account of its investment upgrade by global rating agencies. China?s position remains the same at 6 in 2007, over 2006.

PIRA?s rankings cover 26 key oil producing and consuming countries as well as 22 LNG exporters. The stability index is constructed on the basis of 16 criteria. The criteria include economic factors such as per capita GDP growth, percentage of population below the age of 25, rate of domestic inflation, openness to FDI as well as political and social factors such as democratic government, ethnic and religious conflicts and terrorists attacks. The highest ranking a country can score is 14, of a possible 17.

The petroleum ministry?s technical wing?the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC)?has enquired from PIRA as to why India has been ranked lower than China despite having more positive factors like a democratic government, more people in the younger age group and a more open FDI regime in the oil sector.

According to PIRA, in 2006, India?s ranking was pulled down by negative rankings in the categories of GDP/capita, population under 25, ethnic/religious conflict, terrorist attacks and investment grade. The main change from 2006 to 2007 has been the investment upgrade that has added 2 points to the overall ranking, bringing it to 3.

Under PIRA?s relative oil rankings, Canada has top-scored 14 for both 2006 and 2007, followed by the US and Norway (11) and Japan and Korea (10). The worst performers are typically some of the oil-rich countries like Iraq which tops the negative ranking at (-11) in 2007. It was (-9) in 2007. The others in the negative list include Nigeria at (-7) and Iran and Saudi Arabia (-4). Australia has top-scored in both years at 13 under PIRA?s LNG rankings. Both India and China do not figure in this ranking.