The annual international oil and gas conference, Petrotech-2012, is well underway. On the second day of the meet, Union petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy was busy attending bilateral meetings to expand the oil and gas PSUs's global presence. CNBC-TV18's Nayantara Rai reports on the highlights and developments at Petrotech 2012.
Considering that India is the fifth largest crude importer in the world, OPEC's absence at this year's edition of Petrotech is conspicuous. Towing the OPEC line, major crude supplying nations from Africa have also decided to skip Petrotech this time around. On the second day, the headlines are likely to emerge from the ambitious TAPI (Turkmenistan -Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) Pipeline project which has been in the works for a long time.
Earlier, there were issues between the four countries regarding the gas pricing formula. Though the four countries recently held road-shows to highlight the TAPI Pipeline project, none of the pipeline companies participated in those road shows.
The upstream companies that did take part said that they wanted equity participation at the source of gas in Turkmenistan. Sources indicate that Turkmenistan has expressed disinterest and that is something that the other four countries plan to resolve.
The four countries are also looking to appoint the leader for the consortium after after Jaipal Reddy held bilateral talks with Turkmenistan which began today.
India engaged in bilatateral discussion with Turkmenistan and Mozambique which has invited Indian companies to participate in the downstream sector as well as set up fertiliser plants. Government sources reveal state that India is interested in Mozambique as long as the long-term supply of LNG from the African nation is assured.
A large ministerial panel is to meet later in the day. The panel includes energy ministers from Pakistan, Mozambique, Mauritius and Sudan. On Wednesday or day-three, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and as well finance minister P Chidambaram are scheduled to attend the meet.
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