India is in talks with the oil rich United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to explore the possibility of setting up separate joint ventures that will acquire oil and gas assets in other countries, chairman of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation said.
A delegation led by oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan held separate discussions with the energy ministers of the two countries on the margins of a recent seminar of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna. ONGC chairman Dinesh K Sarraf said while the UAE and Kuwait have plenty of oil to deal with at home, unlike India, "they also have plenty of cash to deploy", economictimes.indiatimes.com reported.
This explains the interest of the two countries in forming joint ventures with India to acquire assets in other countries, said Sarraf, who was part of the Indian delegation that also included government officials and top executives of other state-run oil firms. If discussions were to lead to a deal, Indian state-run firms might form separate joint ventures with state firms in the two countries.
India's primary interest is in acquiring upstream assets while for Kuwait and the UAE the interests stretch to refineries, retailing and petrochemicals, Sarraf said.
The UAE and Kuwait have been India's significant trading partners and the proposed partnerships are an attempt at bringing together competence and capital in the critical energy sector while spreading the investment risks between countries.
