Oil deals and diamond contracts are on the docket for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in India, where he is scheduled to arrive Thursday.
India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp may be invited to develop oil and gas fields in Russia, the government said Thursday.
ONGC has already agreed to cooperate with oil-to-telecoms group Sistema, which controls assets in Bashkortostan, and may also gain access to lucrative oil and gas projects in Russia’s Far North, the government said.
Sistema, in turn, was looking to deepen investment in its Indian mobile unit, Sistema Shyam TeleServices, with more than $600 million, the government said in a statement.
Russia aims to more than double trade with India to $20 billion by 2015. Putin is expected to preside over deals worth more than $10 billion, spanning defense, nuclear power and fertilizers, when he visits this week.
The government said talks would take place with a view to ONGC’s participation in development of the Trebs and Titov oil and gas fields in northwest Russia and deposits on the Arctic peninsula of Yamal.
Putin hosted the heads of foreign energy majors in Yamal in September, where he invited “stable and long-term” partners to help develop a region with enough gas in the ground to satisfy world demand for five years.
The government also referred in the statement to a memorandum of understanding signed in December, during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow, by ONGC and Sistema, controlled by billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
The companies agreed to cooperate in oil and gas exploration and production. The government said cooperation could extend to “the acquisition of assets in the oil and gas industry in Russia and other countries.”
ONGC already has a foothold in Russia after its acquisition of Imperial Energy in 2008.
Also during the trip, Alrosa is expected to sign contracts to supply $490 million of diamonds to India in the next three years as it seeks to double sales to the country.
The company will sign deals with Diamond India, Ratilal Becharlal & Sons and Rosy Blue, Alrosa chief executive Fyodor Andreyev said in a New Delhi interview. Prices and volumes will be reviewed quarterly.
The contracts will help Alrosa boost sales to India this year to as much as $1 billion, or a third of the company’s planned output, Andreyev said. Alrosa sold more than $500 million of diamonds to India last year and $250 million in 2008, he said.
(Reuters, Bloomberg)