New Delhi: In signs of the growing clout of India in the world energy market, Russia’s most powerful oligarch Igor Sechin accompanied Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan during his visit to Far East Russia, which New Delhi is eyeing for boosting its energy presence and opening a new shipping route.
The chief executive of Russia’s oil giant Rosneft accompanied Dharmendra Pradhan to shipbuilding complex Tuesday at Zvezda in Far East Russia, an official statement said.
Pradhan is on a four-day visit to Vladivostok as a follow-up to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vladivostok for the Eastern Economic Forum in September.
Igor Sechin, 58, who rose from an early role as Vladimir Putin’s secretary to head of the world’s biggest publicly listed oil company, controls an energy empire that pumps more crude per day than the whole of Iraq.
With India’s energy consumption slated to surpass China in the next two decades, oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and now Russia, are keen to partner with it to get a pie of the world’s fastest-growing energy market.
“Dharmendra Pradhan reviewed oil and gas projects being undertaken in the Russian Far East,” the statement said. “He visited shipbuilding Complex, Zvezda, which is poised to make a huge contribution in the development of Arctic shipping and developing shipping routes between Russia and India,” it added.
“During Pradhan’s visit to Zvezda, he was accompanied by Sechin who demonstrated the cutting edge technologies there,” the statement further added.
Narendra Modi had visited the Zvezda shipbuilding complex last month.
Russia is home to India’s biggest energy investments with state-owned firms having spent close to USD 10 billion in acquiring stakes in oilfields such as ‘Sakhalin-1’, ‘Taas-Yuryakh’ and ‘Vankor’ and Siberia-focused company ‘Imperial Energy’.
Besides seeking more oil and gas fields, India is looking at raising oil and LNG imports from Russia through a new sea navigation channel between Vladivostok and Chennai.
In a series of tweets, Pradhan said the shipbuilding facility at Zvezda started in 2016 and today manufactures various kinds of vessels including LNG carriers, offshore vessels and also ice-breaking ships which make navigation easy in the often frozen Arctic waters.
Zvezda, he said, will make a ‘huge contribution in the development of Arctic shipping and developing shipping routes between Russia and India’.
“Far East Russia has vast mineral opportunities with Russian Government keen to partner with India. The proposed joint projects are expected to further add strength to our time-tested bilateral friendship,” Pradhan stated.
“India imports small quantities of oil from Russia. Discussions were held on increasing this share of Russian oil to further diversify our energy basket. The new sea navigation channel between Vladivostok and Chennai will act as a great facilitator in enhancing our energy engagements,” added Pradhan.
Crude oil and coking coal from Russia can come from Vladivostok to India, the minister informed.
“Deeply touched by the gracious gesture of CEO Rosneft, Mr Igor Sechin, to accompany me at the Zvezda shipyard for demonstration of the cutting-edge technologies. I thank CEO Rosneft Igor Sechin for accompanying me and sharing insightful details throughout my visit,” Pradhan further stated.
PTI