MOSCOW (MRC) -- India may offer a stake to Iraq in state-run Indian Oil's upcoming refinery in eastern India as part of a long-term oil-supply arrangement with the Middle Eastern country, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to a senior government official's statement.
This follows the visit of a Iraqi delegation led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to India last month.
India is the world's fourth-largest energy consumer and it meets more than three-fourths of its crude oil requirements through imports. During the prime minister's visit, the countries signed an energy-cooperation agreement on oil exploration and refining and decided to work toward establishing a 10-year oil-supply agreement from Iraq.
India also wants to increase imports from Iraq, its second-largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, as a replacement for falling shipments from traditional supplier Iran amid Western sanctions against Tehran. India's crude oil imports from Iraq are currently estimated at about USD20 billion/year.
"Iraq may take some equity in the company refinery," Prabhat Kumar, joint secretary of energy security at the ministry of external affairs, told The Wall Street Journal.
Indian Oil is building the refinery in the eastern state of Orissa with a crude-processing capacity of 15 million tpy. It is expected to cost about 298 billion rupees (USD4.38 billion), according to Indian Oil's website.
As MRC informed earlier, in late August 2013, India and Iraq signed an energy-cooperation agreement spanning oil exploration and refining as well as work toward establishing a 10-year crude oil supply agreement from the Middle East nation.
Besides, the future of the Indian petrochemicals industry is bright with domestic demand driving the market for products. With Government support slowly falling into place, the future could see more investments from multinationals as well as domestic companies. Thus, the UAE-based company, Uniplas Petrochemicals, is planning to set up a 150,000 tpa capacity petrochemical complex in India, worth nearly Rs 55bn (USD1m), by using foreign direct investment to produce caustic soda, ethylene, chlorine, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and PVC compounds. Besides, SIBUR, Russia's largest petrochemical company, and Reliance Industries will bulild a butyl rubber plant with the capacity of 100,000 tpa, which is expected to kick off in next six months in Jamnagar.
MRC