2023-10-03 11:43:18
India has invited French oil company TotalEnergies to bid for oil exploration rights in the country, as the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer seeks to reduce its reliance on costly imports.
Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday he met TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne in Abu Dhabi and invited him to bid for exploration rights over one million square kilometers of blocks across the country which were opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
India buys more than 84% of the oil it needs from abroad and seeks to rapidly develop its hydrocarbon reserves to reduce its dependence on imports.
Mr Puri, who is in Abu Dhabi to attend an industry conference, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he had also discussed with Mr Pouyanne ways to accelerate the liquefied natural gas project ( LNG) in Mozambique, which is India’s largest overseas energy investment.
TotalEnergies has a 26.5% stake in the $20 billion project, which had to be declared force majeure in 2021 due to regional unrest following an Islamic State-linked insurgent group attacked the city from Palma, in the north of the country.
Other shareholders in Mozambique LNG are the Mozambican company ENH, the Japanese company Mitsui & Co, the Thai company PTTEP and the Indian companies ONGC Videsh, Bharat Petroleum and Oil India Ltd. (Reporting by Shivam Patel; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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