MOSCOW (MRC) -- International energy firms will be invited to participate in India’s privatization of state-owned oil companies, the country’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Pradhan said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently met with the chief executives of energy firms in Houston, including those from Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell, Rosneft Oil Co, Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc).
This is the first time Pradhan has signaled the government’s intent bring foreign investment into the country’s state-owned oil companies.
“We are inviting oil majors,” Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi. “They are all towards India’s energy market,” he said. Asked if the response was positive, he said “I am very enthusiastic.”
The minister said a planned oil refinery on India’s west coast in partnership with Aramco and Adnoc is on the right track. There will be more clarity once the a new government is formed in the state of Maharastra, where the project is planned, which is deadlocked after the recent elections, he said.
Asked if a firm deal with Aramco and Adnoc could be sealed soon, he said “I think so,” declining to give a timeline.
India is also open to crude oil imports from Russia, he said. “We are open to source our requirements from all over the world whoever gives us responsible and reasonable price. Russia is a very important partner for us.” On Monday, the chairman of Indian Oil Corp said the company was looking at buying Russian oil.
As MRC wrote previously, Indian Oil Corp conducted turnaround at its naphtha cracker in India from early September 2019 to early October 2019. Located in Panipat, in the northern Indian state of Haryana, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 857,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 425,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
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