India opposed to WB arbitration on Baglihar
New Delhi: Pakistan has said that bilateral talks on the 450-megawatt Baglihar dam project can only continue if India stops work on the project. Talks between the two sides recently broke down with Islamabad saying it will ask the World Bank to arbitrate to help resolve the dispute.

Islamabad insists the dam is a violation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty negotiated by the World Bank. India on its part has said that there is no violation of the treaty.

An MEA spokesperson said that in the last rounds of meetings there were signs of convergence on the issue, and that it had been decided that any outstanding issues would be referred to technical level talks between the Water Resources Secretary. This decision to refer it to the World Bank, the MEA says is not justified.
Back to News Review index page  
NELP V roadshow: Aiyar says India has hydrocarbon potential
New Delhi: Offering the twenty blocks under the fifth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), the Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar said that, "It has been said in the past that we are a hydrocarbon-poor country. We believe we are a hydrocarbon potential country and possibly even a hydrocarbon-rich country." He backed up his statement by pointing to geological studies that show prognosticated reserves of 225 billion barrels in the sedimentary basins of the country and also the two big finds in recent times of Reliance Industries in the KG basin deepwaters and of Cairn Energy in Rajasthan.

Aiyar pointed out that the latest round of offerings was different from past ones in the sense that the process has been streamlined and made simpler. The last date for bidding is May 31.
Back to News Review index page  
IOC is favoured refiner for Cairns crude
New Delhi: The Petroleum Ministry has nominated Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to take up the crude oil found in the Barmer district of Rajasthan and the option of laying pipelines to its refineries were under evaluation, according to Mike Watts, Director (Exploration), Cairn Energy. He was speaking at the NELP-V roadshow, organised at the ongoing Petrotech 2005 conference.

IOC's Panipat refinery in Haryana was the most "favoured refinery" for processing the oil produced from the Rajasthan field. IOC's Koyali refinery in Gujarat was also a possible destination for 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil planned to be produced from Mangala and Aishwariya oilfields in Rajasthan by the end of 2007 or early 2008, he said.

Out of the 55 wells drilled by Cairn Energy in Barmer Basin, 11 have led to discoveries. The RJ-oN-90/1 block, where Cairn has 70 per cent stake and Oil and Natural Gas Corp the remaining 30 per cent, holds a potential of 400 million to 1.25 billion barrels.
Back to News Review index page