Robert Dudley invites Rosneft to India

The former BP-TNK chief and the present BP president R. Dudley visits Moscow very often now. On Friday he met with Rosneft chief E. Khudainatov. One of the issues they negotiated upon was probable joint operations in India. BP representative confirms the fact of the meeting but refuses to comment upon the issues discussed. Rosneft did the same stating that the company regularly meets with its partners. Mr. Dudley met as well with BP-TNK co-owner and the Chairman of the Board M. Fridman.

Now BP business is presented in India by retail oil products trade network via its branch Castrol India, via

Tata BP Solar, a joint venture with Tata Group specializing in solar energy. In 2008 BP in consortium with Reliance Industries signed the contract for KG-DWN-2005/2 deep underwater deposit development in India.

Rosneft has plans to enter Indian market but it hasn’t succeeded in them as yet. In 2007 Rosneft and ONGC signed the memorandum for mutual understanding presupposing realization of conjoint projects in Russia, India and third states.

BP is Rosneft shareholders. Recently they have become partners in Ruhr Oel GmbH owning 4 oil refineries in Germany. 2 months ago Mr. Khudainatov and Mr. Dudley discussed probable cooperation in shelf projects, in the Arctic Sea in particular. In 2006 the companies signed bi-lateral protocol of intent for conjoint researches execution in the Arctic Seas area of Russia. They hadn’t announced on any concrete projects. By 2020 Rosneft hopes to get 28 licensed shelf sites from the state. In October it got sites at the Barents, Kara and Black Seas.

Hydrocarbons consumption actively rises in India and China that will give the companies an opportunity to increase oil products supplies and oil refining and chemistry will become attractive directions for business development in the state, Metropol analyst A. Nazarov states. V. Nesterov by Troika Dialog says that recently India has become more interested in own oil and gas production. Soon they’ll hold the ninth round of the tender for 34 license sites under NELP program acting in India since 1999. The program manages most of prospecting and explorative work in the state and all state tenders for obtaining of license sites for development. Probably Rosneft and BP are interested to participate in this very tender.

Translated by Nadezhda Poltoratskaya

Source: http://inforotor.ru/visit/9246365?url=http://energyland.info/news-show-t...