Indian Minister in Russia to secure oil and gas investment

With Russia emerging as a world energy power, Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar 21 February asked the country's oil and gas companies to heavily invest in India's burgeoning oil and gas sector under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).
Addressing a jam-packed road show organized by his ministry to promote the stage five of NELP, under which India has offered 20 oil and gas blocks to foreign investors for exploration and development, Aiyar, who arrived on a two-day visit, told the Russian oil companies: "It is your baby, now you should actively take part in its growth."

He reminded that Soviet Union and Russia had played a great role in building Indian oil and gas industry when in 1955 Russian oil specialists struck oil in India and belied the 150 years of British claims that there were no energy reserves in the country. Russia's oil major Gazprom is already in 50:50 tie up with GAIL for exploration and production of an offshore gas field in the Bay of Bengal.
Aiyar underscored that Russia, as Asia's biggest energy producer, could enter into a strong partnership in building a stable Asian oil market with soaring Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Korean demand.
"Asia is most divided continent on earth, but there are no objective reasons for this. We have been kept divided by outside powers. But oil and gas pipeline grids will unite Asia," he said.

Aiyar said he has been authorized by the government to enter into negotiations for building gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"My cabinet colleague K. Natwar Singh has had path-breaking talks in Islamabad and I am shortly expecting invitation to visit Pakistan to speed up Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline which in future could go through India to China's southern Yunnan Province," he said.
During his visit, Aiyar is to hold extensive negotiations with the Russian officials including Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Zhukov, Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, Gazprom Chairman Aleksei Miller and Rosneft CEO Sergey Bogdanchikov to expand India's investments in Russia's oil and gas sector beyond Sakhalin-1, including picking stakes in Yukos core asset Yuganskneftegaz.