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Indian-Invested Project in Far East Russia Begins Oil, Gas Production

Posted on: Saturday, 1 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of report by Indian Doordarshan DDTV news channel on 1 October

The gigantic Sakhalin-I fields in far east Russia, India's single largest investment abroad, today began oil and gas production. Sakhalin-1 field where India's ONGC [Oil and Natural Gas Corporation] Videsh Limited has 20 per cent stake will produce 23,000 barrels per day of oil and about 58m standard cubic feet of gas per day. Our correspondent Ajay Agarwal reports from Sakhalin.

[Agarwal - recording] India's quest for securing energy security got a major boost with the start of production of oil and gas from the Chayvo oil field of Sakhalin-I project

. ONGC's foreign arm OVL has 20 per cent stake in the 13bn-dollar project of which US oil major Exxon Mobil with 30 per cent stake is the project operator. Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and his Russian counterpart Viktor Khristenko visited the Chayvo oilfield on Saturday [1 October]. The two leaders formally witnessed the commencement of oil and gas from the Sakhalin project. Earlier, the two leaders are also believed to have discussed ways and means to improve cooperation in the oil and gas sector in [word instinct] now Sakhalin. The Indian side is believed to have shown interest in oil and gas block in Russia, including the Sakhalin-III project. The two leaders recalled the historic cooperation between the two countries. They emphasized the need to carry them further with an emphasis on oil and gas sector. The volatility of oil prices also figured in talks and both ministers discussed the steps to stabilize the prices. The initial production of oil in Sakhalin-I is 30,000 barrels per day which will increase to 1.2 lakh barrels by next year. The initial gas production of 1m cubic meter will also go up to 3bn cubic meters per year by 2009. The project life is estimated to be 40 years. Ajay Agarwal, DD News, Yuzhno, Sakhalin, Russia.

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

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