Oil state companies in India are considering the possibility of participating in the Vostok Oil project of Rosneft, sources told the Indian newspaper Mint. According to the newspaper, India also intends to purchase a share from NOVATEK in the Arctic LNG-2 project. Rosneft confirmed negotiations with a consortium of Indian companies, without specifying their names.

According to Mint, three state-owned companies that are part of the consortium are planning to participate in Vostok Oil. These are ONGC Videsh Ltd, Indian Oil Corp Ltd and Oil India Ltd. They are considering a joint investment in a Russian project, says Mint. "The negotiations are at a preliminary stage... The degree of participation will depend on the assessment," the source said. According to him, a technical assessment of 30 licensed areas out of 52 was performed. If the reserves coincide with the operator's data, they will start a commercial assessment.

Vostok Oil is a project to redirect oil from the Vankor cluster of fields through a new pipeline to Taimyr with further transportation along the Northern Sea Route. The project also includes the development of the Payakhskoye field and adjacent areas in Taimyr. According to Rosneft's estimates, Vostok Oil's total resource base is 6 billion tons of oil.

Arctic LNG-2 is implementing a project for the construction of three production lines for the production of liquefied natural gas with a capacity of 6.6 million tons per year each and a total capacity of 19.8 million tons of LNG and up to 1.6 million tons of stable gas condensate per year.

Rosneft announced that it is negotiating to join Vostok Oil with a number of potential partners, including a "consortium of Indian companies." “We will promptly inform about the results of the work,” said a representative of the Russian company. He noted that the Vostok Oil resource base can be compared to the largest oil provinces in the Middle East or the shale formations of the United States.

The Mint newspaper notes that "India intends to invest" in Arctic LNG-2. The publication does not specify exactly who plans to purchase a share from NOVATEK. The newspaper's source claims that Vostok Oil and Arctic LNG-2 are high priority projects for India. Bloomberg previously reported that a consortium of Indian companies ONGC and Petronet LNG was negotiating with NOVATEK to buy a 9.9% share in Arctic LNG-2.

Source: Kommersant