NEW DELHI, 18 January 2007 — Taking yet another step toward boosting its ties with Saudi Arabia, India yesterday offered Saudi Aramco a stake in three upcoming refineries. The offer was made during talks between Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and his Saudi counterpart Ali Al-Naimi.
Naimi invited Indian companies to invest in a refinery in Saudi Arabia. While Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is building Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is putting up a refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab and Indian Oil Corporation is setting up one at Paradip in Orissa.
Naimi called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday. During their meeting, Manmohan told Naimi that oil producers’ organization OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) should do more to rein in volatility in international oil market and help stabilize oil prices at levels sustainable by developing countries, official sources said. On this, Deora said: “Prices have come down this year but we want them to fall further.”
Voicing hope that market will stabilize and future will be less volatile, after meeting Deora, Naimi clearly said: “We do not want to see volatility in the market (but) the prices are determined by the market.”
“What we as producers do is look at supply side, look at demand side and look at inventory levels and hope all of the three elements stay in equilibrium. Because they do, you will see less and less volatility,” Naimi said.
Regarding the talks held between him and Al-Naimi, Deora said: “The talks have been good...oil minister (Naimi) has assured us that Saudi Arabia will never let India fall short of oil.”
While Naimi is here to attend Petrotech-7 conference, Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry Hashim Yamani is participating in seventh round of Saudi-India Joint Commission.
Emphasizing that this is the right time to forge real partnership between two countries, Yamani drew attention to earlier problems, related to business visa, no longer remaining a restriction.
“This is a great time for forging a true partnership between the two countries and our government will provide the business community all kind of support for this,” Yamani said. “The relationship between the two countries is improving. There is a need to improve trade and investment flow by innovative initiatives.”
Displaying Saudi Arabia’s desire to enhance investment in India, co-chairman of Saudi Business Delegation Abdul Rahman A. Al-Rabiah said: “We will invest about $600 million in India for the industrial projects like mining, energy, real estate, knowledge-based processes, etc.”
