UAE oil company ADNOC is looking to expand its presence in India by investing in refining and petrochemicals and strategic petroleum reserves, said Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber was speaking to reporters at Petrotech 2019 in New Delhi, he said, ‘India is very high on our strategic agenda and expanding our strategic reserve in India will be an item on the agenda to be discussed with our friends and counterparts in India.’
Further, he added that UAE is also looking at storing more crude oil in Indian storages. Currently, the UAE supplies a small quantity of oil to India. Last November, India signed an initial pact to lease out a part of its underground strategic oil storage at Padur in Karnataka to ADNOC for storing crude oil.
UAE and India to join hand for more petrochemical projects
India, the world’s third largest energy consumer, has drawn the UAE’s attention. The UAE is looking at investing in refining and petrochemical projects as well as stocking more crude in India.
Last June ADNOC and Saudi ARAMCO had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for participating in the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (RRPCL), which is building the 60 million tonne refinery project in Maharashtra. The mega refinery to be set up with an estimated investment of Rs 3 lakh crore will be able to process 1.2 million barrels of crude oil per day.
RRPCL is a joint venture among the three state-run oil marketing companies i.e. Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.
