Asean heads to come for Republic Day parade: Pradhan

Part of plan for deeper petro ties with bloc and India in talks with Indonesia for refineries, LNG plants, says the oil minister

The government is in talks with Indonesia for partnering in the oil refining and liquefied natural gas (LNG) segments, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, as part of a plan to get involved with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in the hydrocarbon sector.

As a boost to such ties, he added, heads of the 10 Asean countries would come to the next Republic Day parade here. The bloc comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Our oil marketing companies are also in the process of increasing their footprint in the retail marketing segment in Asean. Recently, we dispatched a first consignment of high speed diesel to Myanmar," the minister said, while mentioning the Indonesia talks.

India already takes petro products from Asean. "Last year, we imported six million tonnes (mt) of crude oil from the region, mainly Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, 2.8 per cent of our total crude oil import and an increase of 12 per cent from the year before. We imported 1.45 mt of LNG, mainly from Singapore and Malaysia, seven per cent of total LNG import," informed Pradhan.

India also imported one mt of petroleum products from the region, while also exporting 12.2 mt of these, mainly to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines. That was 18.8 per cent of total export of these.

"There is also healthy collaboration between our Indian Oil Corporation and Petronas (of Malaysia) in particular. The two companies are not only working in India and third countries but Petronas is a reliable partner for technology and foreign investment," the minister said.