New
Delhi: The minister of petroleum and natural gas, Mani Shankar Aiyar,
has informed the Rajya Sabha that production of oil and gas from Sakhalin-I
is expected to commence from 2005-06 and full production is expected from
the last quarter of 2006-07. ONGC
Videsh Ltd's (OVL) would have a share of 20 per cent from the oil and gas
production in the Sakhalin Project. It is expected to yield about 12.5 million
tonne of oil and 10 billion cubic metre of gas in the year at peak production.
The total
production of the fields over their 40-year life period is estimated to
be about 307 million tonne of oil and 485 billion cubic meter of gas. OVL
has the option to bring its share of oil and gas to India or sell it outside
the country at the prevailing market prices. In
addition to OVL's partnership with Rosneft in Sakhalin-I project in Russia,
Aiyar said that further discussions about possible areas of collaboration
have been held at the ministerial, official and commercial levels on this
subject and the response has been encouraging. Saudi
Aramco, the world's largest oil company, is keen to partner with state-owned
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in mainting strategic crude reserves, Aiyar
said. In a recent meeting between IOC and Saudi Aramco, the latter had expressed
interest in joining India's efforts for maintenance of 'strategic petroleum
reserves', though no formal proposal had been received from Saudi Aramco,
he stated. India
is in the process of building 5 million tonnes of storage capacity for crude
oil in Visakhapatnam and Mangalore to improve its energy security. The storage,
equivalent to 15 days of the country's oil requirement, would boost India's
existing 7.3 million tonne of crude tankage and 6.8 million tonnes product
tankage capacity.
Currently,
total crude oil storage capacity can meet the country's oil requirement
for 19 days.
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