India, US to Deepen Energy Ties

India and United States have agreed to deepen energy ties, especially in the oil and gas sector.

Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan met the US counterpart Ernest Moniz in Washington on July 18 in Washington. Pradhan was on a visit to the US to hold road shows in Houston to promote bidding of 67 discovered small oil and gas fields. 

The two sides agreed to enhance institutional and technical cooperation in assessment and reassessment of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reserves in India, both in onshore and offshore. India and US would also look to develop new technologies for biofuels (second generation ethanol and bio-diesel), the government said in a statement.

The two parties would also develop storage for petroleum products.

The bilateral energy cooperation between the two countries had started in the form of energy dialogue in 2005 under which oil and gas is also discussed. Over the last decade, several areas of interest for cooperation like technology for production from marginal fields, shale structures, developing gas pipeline network, improving refinery efficiency etc. had been identified.

Pradhan and Moniz agreed that there is a need for regular meetings of officials and experts from both sides for progress in cooperation in concrete areas.

There is already a substantial presence of Indian state owned firms in US hydrocarbon sector. GAIL has contracted for import of LNG from the US to the tune of 5.8 mt per year from end 2017. Indian companies have also invested in shale oil and gas projects. GAIL has 20 percent equity in Eagle Ford basin while Indian Oil Corp and Oil India Limited have 10 percent equity in Niobrara basin.