By IANS
New Delhi : While India will formally step up its energy diplomacy with oil-rich Africa at a major hydrocarbon conference beginning here Tuesday, it started bilateral talks Monday to deepen cooperation in the oil and gas industry.
So far, eight ministers have confirmed their participation at the two-day India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference, jointly organised by India’s ministry of petroleum and natural gas, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
There will be ministerial delegations from Chad, Comoros Islands, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Sudan, along with 100 officials from a total of 25 African countries.
Africa already accounts for 16 percent of India’s crude oil imports, which the petroleum ministry wants to increase to 19 percent to decrease its dependence on the volatile Middle East fuel sources.
The quality of African oil of the sweet crude variety is also much better than that from West Asia, which makes refining much easier and cheaper.
But, India, a late entrant to the great African oil game, has to compete not only with Western oil companies, but also with the state-owned Chinese companies.
Bilateral talks ahead of the conference began Monday, with a meeting between the petroleum minister Murli Deora and his counterparts from Chad, Ethiopia and Comoros Islands.
In his meeting with Chad’s Emmanuel Nadingar, Deora offered Indian assistance for development of Chad’s hydrocarbon industry, as well as training of personnel in upstream and downstream sectors.
India offered the services of Engineers India Limited (EIL) in setting up a refinery in Ethiopia, when Deora met the Ethiopian minister for mines and energy, Alemayehu Tegenu.
Ethiopia showed interest in India’s ethanol blended petrol programme, while New Delhi also offered help in developing a pipeline network and in sharing technology for transporting LNG in smaller quantities to areas not connected by pipelines.
In his last bilateral meeting Monday, Deora lobbied for EIL services before the minister of energy, mine, industry and handicraft of Comoros, Houmadi Abdallah.
Meanwhile, at an official-level meeting, Ghana sought help in developing CNG facilities by Gas Authority of India Limited and showed interest in import of petroleum products. Further, it was suggested that EIL could assist in a refinery expansion project in Ghana.