India's oil industry

"India and China in the next few years will be in direct competition with America and European Union for oil and natural gas from all over the world specially Middle East. The bottom line is that who ever gets to use the oil, will grow faster and eventually dominate the world." --Sonia Chaturvedi wrote in India Daily, February 16, 2005.

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Cooperative Venture

"India and China, the most aggressive shoppers for oil and gas assets in the world, and normally archrivals in the race for overseas oilfields, have finally come together to pursue their energy security in the global arena," Indrajit Basu reported in the December 22, 2005, Asia Times.

"China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the two largest oil companies in the respective countries, announced on December 20 that they had jointly won a bid to acquire 37% of Petro-Canada's stake in Syrian oilfields for US$573 million. ONGC and CNPC, both state-owned, will have equal stakes in the al-Furat oil and gas fields," Basu wrote.

Although CNPC and ONGC "have been working together as joint operators in Sudan for the last three years," this will be "the first time, then, that an Indian company [will] acquire an oil property along with a Chinese company," Basu wrote.

New Natural Gas Fields: Krishna-Godavari Basin

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), India's state-owned and biggest company, said in February 2004, that it had "struck natural gas in deep water in the Bay of Bengal, ... in an exploration block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, about 38 kilometers (24 miles) off the coast," CNN reported.

"ONGC said its deep-sea rig Sagar Vijay found the large gas-bearing structure in an area known as G4-AB, near a gas-bearing prospect operated by Reliance Industries.

"The find is at a depth of 1,650 to 2,130 meters (5,413 to 6,988 feet), it said. ... ONGC said test results showed a flow rate of 14.42 million cubic feet a day from the well, the first it has drilled in the area." [1]

In June 2005, a new gas reserve, "found at the basin of the Krishna and Godavari rivers in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh," was projected to "yield 20 trillion cubic feet of gas, said Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the top elected leader in western Gujarat state," Associated Press writer Rupak Sanyal reported. Modi said that the discovery "will overnight almost double the current gas production of the entire country."

The discovery was made by a "consortium led by state-run Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. Ltd.," which "has a 80 percent stake in the consortium, while Canada's Geoglobal Resources Inc. and India's Jubilant Enpro each own 10 percent, a Gujarat government statement said." Until the June discovery, a "gas reserve owned by private Reliance Energy with an estimated 14 trillion cubic feet of gas was previously the country's largest reserve." [2]

"Commercial production is expected to begin by 2007, Modi said. The new discovery is expected to significantly ease the country's gas shortages. India currently has two terminals for liquefied natural gas. Owned by Shell and an Indian consortium, they import gas from Australia and Qatar before liquifying it and supplying it through pipelines to Indian customers -- mainly fertilizer, power and steel plants." [3]

On September 3, 2005, the ONGC announced the discovery of a new "reasonably big" natural gas field "during drilling operations" in the Bay of Bengal, "off the coast of southern Andhra Pradesh state ... [located] next to a major natural gas field owned by India's biggest private firm [and India's largest private sector gas explorer], Reliance Industries."

Development Talks

The BBC reported October 17, 2005, that BP p.l.c., ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil "are said to be in talks" with Reliance Industries, about "developing the huge area" in the Krishna Godavari basin. The BBC said that "Energy experts estimate that the field, India's largest gas discovery in 30 years, is worth $4bn (£2.2bn)."

SourceWatch Resources

• BRIC Alliance
• China: The next economic superpower
• China-Iran-Russia axis
• China's oil industry
• globalization
• Iran's oil industry
• peak oil
• peak oil: we have oil
• rogue state
• Russia-China-India "strategic triangle"
• Sovereignty over natural resources
• Syria's oil industry

External links

Profiles

• Country Analysis Brief: India, U.S. Department of Energy (information as of October 2004, but subject to change).
• "An Energy Overview of India," U.S. Department of Energy.

Websites

• GAIL: Gas Authority of India Limited website.
• Gujarat Gas Company Limited website.
• Indian Oil Corporation website.
• Oil and Natural Gas Corporation website.
• Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, India, website.
• PetroWatch-India is "a fortnightly intelligence bulletin on the oil and gas industry in India."

Reports

• Shamila N. Chaudhary, "Iran to India Natural Gas Pipeline: Implications for Conflict Resolution & Regionalism in India, Iran, and Pakistan," American University, 2000.

From Asia Times

• Chietigj Bajpaee, "India trails China in energy race," October 20, 2004.
• Chietigj Bajpaee, "India, China locked in energy game," March 17, 2005.
• Siddharth Srivastava, "Delhi's Pipeline Dilemma," March 18, 2005.
• Ramtanu Maitra, "The energy ties that bind India, China," April 12, 2005.
• Chietigj Bajpaee, "Will the peacock outdo the panda?," July 13, 2005.
• Aruni Mukherjee, "India, China ... tortoise, hare?," August 18, 2005.
• "India, China: Comrades in oil," August 19, 2005.
• "Kazakh oil coup for China, India cries foul," August 24, 2005.
• Antoaneta Bezlova, "China's oil quest causes friction," September 10, 2005.
• Indrajit Basu, "India discreet, China bold in oil hunt," September 29, 2005.
• Antoaneta Bezlova, "China oil rivalry pushes India, Taiwan closer," October 5, 2005.
• Siddharth Srivastava, "Delhi knocked out over China," November 16, 2005.
• Siddharth Srivastava, "India oils its Saudi Arabia ties," November 18, 2005.
• Siddharth Srivastava, "The foundations for an Asian oil and gas grid," December 1, 2005.
• "Chinese, Indian giants make joint Syrian oil bid," December 10, 2005.
• Indrajit Basu, "India, China pin down $573m Syria deal," December 22, 2005.

From the BBC

• Zubair Ahmed, "Indian firms spread their wings," October 18, 2004.
• "India and Iran in gas partnership," November 3, 2004.
• "India and Iran in gas export deal," January 7, 2005: "India has signed a $40bn (£21bn) deal to import millions of tonnes of liquefied natural gas from Iran. Firms led by the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will also assist in the development of Iranian oil fields."
• Ethirajan Anbarasan, "Indian ambitions in the pipeline," February 5, 2005.
• "Big profits for India's Reliance," April 27, 2005.
• "India and Iran finalise gas deal," June 13, 2005: "Its thought that any overland line to Iran will have to transit Pakistan ... they have finalised and signed a $22bn (£12bn) deal for Tehran to supply five million tonnes of gas every year to India."
• "Reliance plans huge oil expansion," August 3, 2005: "Indian industrial giant Reliance has announced that it will spend $5.8bn to create one of the world's largest oil refineries in Gujarat state."
• "Gas giants fight for India field," October 17, 2005.

Articles & Commentary

2002

• Indrajit Basu, "India's Enormous Gas Find Changes Energy Economics," UPI (Rense.com), November 8, 2002.

2003

• "Private Firm Hits Wildcat. India Gas Find Has Major Impact," AAPG, January 2003.
• "India needs Iranian natural gas," PIN (IranMania), December 31, 2003.

2004

• "ADB Backing Development of India's First Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal," ADB.org, January 13, 2004: "The project will serve gas users along the 2,500-km Hazira-Bijaypur-Jadgishpur pipeline, covering Gujarat, Western Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh, and those near Uran, Maharashtra." Petronet LNG Limited (PLL) is "the company that is developing the $547 million project under a 30-year concession agreement with the Gujarat Maritime Board. ... PLL is sponsored by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, GAIL (India) Limited, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, and GDF International, a subsidiary of Gaz de France."
• "India's ONGC finds deep-water gas," CNN, February 23, 2004.
• "India actively considers strategic natural gas storage," Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections, April 3, 2004.
• "Qatar, India plan strategic partnership on natural gas," Aljazeera, April 16, 2004.
• "USTDA Awards Grant for National Gas Grid Project in India," USTDA, September 1, 2004: "U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded a $690,000 grant to GAIL (India) Ltd. to partially fund a feasibility study for the National Gas Grid project in India."
• Peter Willems, "Pumping Yemen’s natural gas," Yemen Times, December 13-15, 2004: "India announced last week that Yemen might be one of its suppliers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after negotiations with Iran fell through."

2005

• Jehangir Pocha, "The Axis of Oil," In These Times (AlterNet), February 2, 2005: "With growing energy needs of their own, China and India are increasingly competing with the United States to secure oil exploration rights."
• "India And China: Oil-Patch Partners?" BusinessWeek, February 7, 2005.
• "India calls for formation of an Asian natural gas grid," Deccan Herald, February 15, 2005: "The petroleum minister said Asia region had few geographical impediments to overcome in creating a common natural gas grid."
• Sonia Chaturvy, "India and China are ready for the coming catastrophic east-west oil bidding war – ready to strategically bid the West out to achieve higher growth," India Daily, February 16, 2005.
• "Meeting India's demand for natural gas," International Herald Tribune, May 4, 2005.
• Rupak Sanyal, "Newly Discovered Field to Double India's Natural Gas Production," Associated Press (Goldsea), June 26, 2005.
• "GAIL India Says Ready to Begin Drilling in Bengal Basin," Dow Jones (RigZone), August 30, 2005.
• "India says natural gas field discovered," ABC News (Australia) (Yahoo! Business News), September 3, 2005.
• Siddharth Srivastava, "U.S.-India relations and the liquid natural gas conundrum," Global Beat Syndicate, September 12, 2005.
• John Lancaster, "India to Proceed With Natural Gas Pipeline. Country's Top Energy Official Sees No Alternative to Importing Fuel From Iran," Washington Post, September 27, 2005.
• "ONGC Videsh, Gail Sign Pact with Daewoo for Myanmar Gas Block," Asia Pulse Pte Ltd (RigZone), October 4, 2005.
• "BP eyes stake in Reliance's KG basin gas fields," Financial Express, October 18, 2005.
• Charlie Zhu, "ANALYSIS - India, China will flirt, not wed, in foreign oil push," Reuters, December 21, 2005: "China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) have won an auction for PetroCanada's Syrian fields after a concerted diplomatic push from India -- the first such tie-up between what are normally arch-rivals in the race for overseas oilfields."

2006

• Lola Nayar, "India's gas deals with Iran run into price hurdles," New Kerala (India), May 2, 2006.