RPN Singh gives look east thrust to oil diplomacy

NEW DELHI: India is seeking long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply from countries such as Brunei, Indonesia, Australia and Malaysia, minister of state for oil & natural gas RPN Singh said.

Expressing concerns over volatile international oil prices, Singh said the pricing of a finite resource such as oil could not be left unregulated.

There should be greater transparency in the price formation of oil and there should be check on speculative oil trade in some markets, Singh said at the East Asia Summit of Energy Ministers in Darussalam (Brunei). Ten countries of ASEAN including Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, China, Russia and USA also participated in the event.

Singh also held bilateral discussions with energy ministers of Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, USA and Vietnam, an oil ministry statement said.

The thrust of Singh’s bilateral talks was on diversification of India’s sources of LNG import, the statement said. “It would be a win-win situation for LNG producing countries of east Asia and India to forge long term relationships in this region,” it said quoting Singh.

Natural gas presently accounts for about 10% of India’s primary energy basket as compared to the world average of 24%. To popularize this versatile and environmentally benign fuel, the government is doubling its present LNG capacity of 13.6 million tonne per annum to 26 million tonne by 2016, he said. The country is also building about 8,000 km of gas pipelines to transport gas across the country. The demand for gas in the country is expected to grow at 14% during the next five years.