India has sought at least 20 per cent stake in the prolific Sakhalin -3 oil and gas fields even as Petronet LNG, the nation's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, was in talks with Russia's Gazprom to jointly develop projects to produce LNG, marketing and transportation of gas.
These issues came up for discussion during the bilateral meeting between the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Jaipal Reddy, and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shmatkon, on the sidelines of the 20{+t}{+h} World Petroleum Congress being held at Doha, Qatar.
Interestingly, ONGC Videsh (OVL) has been raising the issue of stake in the Far East Russian oil and gas fields since the last five years but Moscow has not responded to its overtures favourably.
OVL is keen on replicating its 20 per cent stake in Exxon Mobil-operated Sakhalin-1 oil and gas fields in the upcoming Sakhalin-3 project.
Mr. Reddy took up the issue with Mr. Shmatkon and was assisted by OVL Managing Director D. K. Sarraf, according to an official statement issued here.
Mr. Reddy also showed interest in acquiring stake in some oilfields in East Siberia and North Russia.
He made the case for OVL joining hands with Russian firm Rosneft for exploring and developing the Vankor oilfield in East Siberia. Joint bidding for Trebs and Titov oil fields in the Timan Pechora region of North Russia was also discussed, the statement said.
The issue of importing at least 2 million tonnes of LNG a year from Russia's Sakhalin LNG project also figured in the discussions.
Petronet LNG is raising its Dahej terminal capacity to 15 million tonnes and is keen on imports from Russia, which could be doubled to 4 million tonnes a year later.
India suggested swapping LNG imports of Japan from Qatar with the LNG that could be available from Russian sources like Sakhalin. It also proposed participation of Petronet in the projects along with OVL.
Petronet has said that it would be soon finalising the agreement for sourcing LNG from Russia under the pact arrived at with Gazprom.
The heads of agreement for supply of about 2.5 million tonnes of LNG were signed recently at Singapore.
The LNG is proposed to be sourced from Shtokman field.
Petronet further showed interest in importing more LNG as the demand in India was growing rapidly, the statement added.
