The Hindu Business Line : India, Ethiopia explore possible co-operation in gas, oil

Expanding ties: Mr Emmanuel Nadingar, Oil Minister, Chad, calling on the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Murli Deora, at his office in the Capital on Monday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov 5 India and Ethiopia today explored possibilities of co-operation in the oil and gas sector.

The Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, held bilateral talks with his counterpart from Ethiopia to accelerate and expand co-operation in various activities in the hydrocarbon sector.

At the meeting with Mr Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Mines and Energy of Ethiopia, the two leaders explored possibilities of co-operation in the sector. The Indian side suggested roping in Engineers India Ltd (EIL) in engineering and other services.

Similar, assistance was also offered in largely unexplored exploration and production (E&P) activity of Ethiopia along with utilising Indian expertise in setting up refinery in that country, Mr Deora told newspersons.

The Indian side also offered its assistance in developing a pipeline network along with building infrastructure for transportation of liquefied natural gas in smaller quantities to the places which are not connected by pipelines in that country.

The Ethiopian Minister showed keen interest in India’s ethanol blended petrol programme and enquired about the progress in bio-diesel production in the country.

Chad, Comoros

Mr Deora also held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Chad and Comoros to expand co-operation in various activities in the hydrocarbon sector.

In a separate meeting with Mr Emmanuel Nadingar, Ministre du Petrole from Chad, the two Ministers discussed possibilities of India’s assistance to chalk out exploration acreages and other technical services in the E&P sector in that country.

Training of petroleum sector personnel in upstream and downstream was also discussed during the meeting.

The Indian side elaborated investment potential by oil PSUs in the overseas ventures which could support development of hydrocarbon industry in Chad.

In his meeting with the Minister of Energy, Mine, Industry and Handicraft of Comoros, Mr Houmadi Abdallah, Mr Deora explained the Indian capabilities and the potential areas of co-operation between the enterprises of two countries.

CNG in Ghana

The bilateral meeting with Ghana, which was held at an official level, focused on possibilities of developing CNG facilities in Ghana by GAIL. The delegation was informed that the refinery expansion project planned by Ghana offers another area of co-operation in which EIL could assist in engineering and technical consultancy services. The refinery has a capacity of about 2 million tonnes per annum, which Ghana intends to raise to 5 MTPA. Ghana also conveyed its interest in importing finished petroleum products from India, as India has surplus refining capacity.

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