Indian Oil Seeks Arctic Drilling Team-up

Indian oil intends to team up with Russia's Rosneft for oil exploration in the Barents & Kara Seas.

ONGC, one of the largest oil and gas companies in Asia, has formally addressed Rosneft with a partnership offer in one of the latter’s Arctic hydrocarbon projects.

In a letter, the ONGC says it would like to team up with Rosneft in one of its international partnerships recently concluded in the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. The Indian company primarily wants the Russian state company to reduce its 67 percent stake in the projects with respectively ExxonMobil, Eni and Statoil to give room for third partners.

Rosneft is currently about to establish joint ventures with ExxonMobil, Eni and Statoil in the Kara Sea and the Barents Sea respectively.

Alternatively, the ONGC requests a stake in one of Rosneft’s Arctic licenses where international partnerships have not yet been concluded, the Economic Times reports.

The ONGC does not have experiences from the Arctic, but has been engaged in offshore drilling and production since it found the huge Mumbay High field in the 1970s, and now produces about 77 percent of India's  crude oil and around 81 percent of its natural gas. About 74 percent of the company is owned by the Indian state.