Indian companies consider Rosneft stakes, pipeline - minister

By Nidhi Verma and Sankalp Phartiyal

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian companies are evaluating buying stakes in Russian state oil firm Rosneft, India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday, as Moscow seeks funds to address its state deficit.

Russia has been hurt by Western sanctions over its actions in Ukraine, which effectively froze its companies's access to Western capital market, and a plunge in global oil prices.

"Indian companies are looking into the offer," said Pradhan, who met the Russian leadership last week at a conference in St. Petersburg.

Moscow plans to sell stakes totalling 19.5 percent in Rosneft, the world's top listed oil producer by volume, as part of a wider privatisation plan for 2016 to raise about 650 billion roubles ($10 billion).

India has signed deals worth billions of dollars with Russia to buy stake in assets in Siberia at a time Moscow is keen to develop and deepen its Soviet-era economic ties with New Delhi.

The Kremlin sees India as a counterbalance of sorts to China's growing dominance on the post Soviet Union's territory.

India's recent deals with Rosneft are eagerly watched by Middle Eastern producers who see India alongside China as one of the key growth markets.

Pradhan said Indian firms' deals to buy about a 50 percent stake in the Vankor field and about 30 percent in Taas-Yuriakh field would cost about $5-6 billion.

He said Indian companies are also looking at investing in the Yamal liquefied natural gas project in Siberia.

Igor Sechin, the head of Russia's top oil producer Rosneft, told Rossiya-24 TV earlier this week that the company has not held any talks with either Chinese or Indian companies about the state company's privatisation.

Pradhan said India is also talking to Russia for building a gas pipeline through Central Asia as New Delhi wants to increase the share of gas in its energy-mix.

Gas accounts for about 7 percent of India's overall needs compared to the global average of about 24 percent, he said.

The two countries have a formed a panel to explore the possibility of laying a gas pipeline, Pradhan said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with Putin during the latter's visit to Delhi last year.

He said India will raise this issue with the Russian leadership during Modi's ongoing visit to Tashekent where the Indian premier is attending a meet of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

"The day is not far when a pipeline from Russia will reach India," Pradhan said. "It will be a very significant step for our energy security."

(Editing by William Hardy)