Indian companies eye stakes in Adco

UAE's Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri and India's Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley during a meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday.

 Indian companies are interested in acquiring a stake in Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (Adco) for onshore oil operations.
This was said by Dharmendra Pradhan, India's Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, who held a meeting with Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Al Mazrouei, UAE's Minister for Energy, in New Delhi a day ahead of the state visit to India by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
Both ministers discussed areas of mutual interest to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector.
"Cooperation in the field of hydrocarbon was an important element of our bilateral relationship. Nearly eight per cent of India's petroleum products were sourced from the UAE. Hence it played an important role in our energy sector."
He emphasised that there exists a lot of untapped potential and expressed confidence that India's bilateral hydrocarbon linkages will grow in the coming years.
While there were no upstream engagements by any Indian Energy and petroleum company in the UAE, he informed Indian public sector enterprises, such as ONGC Videsh, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Oil India, were interested in seeking participation in the producing assets or prospective exploration rounds in the UAE.
Pradhan said: "We express our happiness that Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) is working with Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (SPRL) on strategic reserve project in Mangalore. The project is on track and will be concluded soon."
"In my meeting with Al Mazrouei, I have briefed him on the major projects in the hydrocarbon sector being taken up by Indian PSUs in various parts of India, such as Opal project at Dahej, Gujarat, BORL project at Bina, Madhya Pradesh, HPCL's integrated refinery cum petroleum plant at Andhra Pradesh etc."
Highlighting the technical capabilities of Indian PSUs and their track record for executing several major projects overseas, Pradhan said: "They are well qualified to undertake engineering procurement contracts, projects in the UAE. There are also considerable potential for establishing JVs in petrochemicals, fertilisers and project export sectors."
sunita@khaleejtimes.com