India, Nigeria discuss opportunities in hydrocarbon sector

The Dollar Business Bureau 

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan held a meeting with Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, who is on three-day official visit to India. The discussion, which took place in New Delhi. primarily focussed on the involvement of the two countries in the hydrocarbon sector.

The meeting observed the extensive trading India does with Nigeria in the form of huge crude oil imports from the African country. It was noted that India imported nearly 23.7 MMT of crude (nearly 12% of India overall imports) and over 2 MMTPA of LNG from Nigeria in 2015-16.

The Indian minister also thanked his Nigerian counterpart for the contracts given to Indian public sector oil companies by the latter with Pradhan expressing its request to receive similar long-term contracts in the future.

The leaders also talked about a likely investment by India of $15 billion with Nigeria with ways to strengthen their existing cooperation in oil and gas sector. They particularly highlighted exploring investment opportunities for Indian public and private sector companies in Nigeria.

It was also noted that the two countries are considering a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to pave way for investments by India in the Nigerian Oil and Gas sector to include areas such as term contract, participation of Indian companies in the refining sector, oil and gas marketing sector, upstream sector, development of gas infrastructure and training of oil and gas personnel in Nigeria. The deal is expected to be finalised during PETROTECH-2016 to be held in December.