India signs pact expressing interest in taking stake in Far East Russian oilfields

India on Tuesday signed a non-binding cooperation agreement with Russia that reiterated interest of Indian firms in taking stake in oilfields in Far East region of the former Soviet Republic.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan discussed investment opportunities when he met Igor Sechin, chief executive of Russian oil major Rosneft, here on Tuesday.

"We discussed elaborately for raising oil imports from Russia," he told reporters after the meeting.

During the talks, the two sides reviewed existing stake of Indian firms in Russian oilfields such as Sakhalin-1, Taas-Yuryakh and Vankor fields.

"In the presence of Minister Pradhan, the Indian consortium of four oil and gas PSUs (Bharat PetroResources Ltd, Indian Oil Corp, ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd) and Rosneft exchanged a non-binding cooperation agreement, reiterating their interest in participation of the Indian companies in the Eastern Cluster project of Russia," an official statement said.

A separate statement issued by Rosneft said the two sides "reiterated their interest in a potential participation of the Indian partners in the Vostok oil project."
"The first stage consortium commits to investment of USD 850 million towards the building of a petrochemical unit in Vadinar within two years," it said. "The consortium is also planning to expand Nayara Energy's retail presence, which currently has over 5,300 retail outlets across the country."