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U.S. Asks India to Back Off Syria Oil Deal: Report

Posted on: Sunday, 29 January 2006, 09:00 CST

U.S. asks India to back off Syria oil deal: report

NEW DELHI, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States has asked India to reconsider its decision to buy a Syrian oilfield, The Hindu reported here Saturday.

The demarche to this effect was made earlier this month and an aide memoire outlining Washington's objections has been handed over to Indian Foreign Ministry here, the daily reported.

Indian Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh Ltd. (OVL) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) teamed up in December 2005 to purchase a 37 percent stake in the al-Furat oil and gas fields from PetroCanada for 573 million U.S. dollars.

India considers the Syrian venture to be of enormous strategic significance for the value of underlying assets and the role it will play in cementing China-India partnership for acquiring oil and gas equities in third countries.

"The U.S. strongly opposed such investments in Syrian resources, " the newspaper quoted the aide memoire as saying.

It added that "Now is not the time to send mixed messages to SARG (Syrian Arab Republic Government) either through investment deals or through any form of economic or political reward to the Damascus regime."

Indian officials have said that Washington has been told that the Syrian investment would proceed as planned.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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