By IANS,
New Delhi : Oil Minister Murli Deora Wednesday held talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow in which he reiterated India’s interest in participating in the Sakhalin-3 oil and gas project, a ministry statement said here.
Deora is on a two-day visit to Moscow, accompanied by a high-powered delegation, including Petroleum Secretary R.S. Pandey, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) chairman R.S. Sharma and ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) managing director R.S. Butola.
India has been talking about buying stake in Sakhalin-3 for the last couple of years, but Russia is yet to give the green signal.
The minister also suggested that Russian energy firm Rosneft and OVL could start joint exploration and develop projects in eastern Siberia. ONGC already has a 20 percent stake in Sakhalin-1 project operated by Exxon Mobil.
Deora further invited Russian companies to take part in both the upstream and downstream sectors in India’s oil and gas industry.
Companies of both countries could take part in hydrocarbon projects in third countries, Deora said.
Deora met his Russian counterpart Sergy Shemato at Tuesday night, where they talked about possibilities of enhancing cooperation in the oil and gas sector “on a long-term basis” as “Russia is energy rich and India is an energy deficit country”.
The minister also looked forward to Russian participation in the India-CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) Roundtable on hydrocarbons to be held in New Delhi Nov 25-26.