India, Russia announce joint study on gas pipelines at OPEC summit

NEW DELHI: India and Russia will jointly study the feasibility of crude and gas pipelines between the two countries shortly, the oil ministry said in a statement following a meeting of the oil ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of the OPEC International Seminar in Vienna.

India, the fourth largest energy consumer in the world, presents a huge business opportunity for Russia, which is facing economic constraints due to a sharp fall in energy prices and western sanctions. A pipeline from Russia can potentially replace some of the West Asian suppliers and its natural gas can infuse life into many of India’s gasbased power plants that are shut or underutilised due to paucity of cheap local gas.

India has explored the idea of several energy pipelines from across the borders in the past but not one has gone beyond the drawing board. During the meeting on Thursday, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Russian energy minister Alexander Novak “agreed to expand bilateral energy cooperation”. India also showed interest in importing crude and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia, the statement said. Pradhan also met his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Angola and Venezuela and discussed cooperation in the energy sector.

The minister also discussed with the Iranian energy minister the possibility of a gas pipeline from Iran. With the energy minister of Qatar, Pradhan “discussed the existing bilateral issues including supply of long-term LNG supply to India”, the statement said. India is seeking a reduction in the pricing of LNG it imports from Qatar under a long-term agreement.