NEW DELHI, December 11. /TASS/. Russia and India will expand payments in national currencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his official visit to India. “We agreed to use national currencies more actively in the payments,” Putin said.
Russian energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom together with Indian companies are preparing projects on developing the Arctic shelf, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
“Our largest companies, Rosneft and Gazprom, together with their Indian counterparts are preparing projects on developing Russia’s Arctic shelf and expanding the supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG),” Putin told journalists.
Rosneft, India’s Essar sign contract on annual supplies of 10 mln tons of oil to India
Russia's top oil producer Rosneft and India’s Essar Group have signed a preliminary contract on annual supplies of 10 million tons of oil to India over 10 years, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said on Thursday.
“The contract envisages launching supplies in 2015 of 10 million tons over 10 years with a possible extension,” Sechin said, adding that oil will be supplied via the sea route.
The contract is “an energy bridge between Russia and India,” he said.
“We continue talks not only with Essar, we are working with other processing companies and continue cooperation with ONGC. There is a possibility that the participation of Indian companies in extraction projects will increase,” Sechin said.
‘We and the project participants have agreed on the possibility of such participation and we don’t see any big obstacles,” Sechin said, without specifying the stake, which ONGC might get in the project.
Far East LNG project shareholders agree terms for Indian ONGC’s participation
Shareholders of the Far East Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant project on Russia’s Pacific Island of Sakhalin have agreed terms for the Indian ONGC’s participation in the undertaking, oil major Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said on Thursday.
“ONGC participates in minerals extraction projects in Russia and we’re holding negotiations on increasing its participation,” Sechin said.
ONGC requested Rosneft to enter the project for the construction of an LNG plant in the Far East, Sechin said.
Crimea, Indian business group sign agreement on economic cooperation
Crimea and an Indian business association signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday aimed at expanding business ties and deepening investment cooperation, Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov said after talks with Indian business representatives.
The Crimean leader, who arrived in New Delhi earlier in the day as Russian President Vladimir Putin met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a summit, met a Mumbai businessman to discuss boosting trade with the Black Sea region. Aksyonov said the two sides agreed to cooperate in agriculture, tourism, pharmaceutical manufacturing and trade, and promised to provide adequate conditions to attract Indian entrepreneurs.
“We have invited businessmen from India to visit Crimea at any time,” Aksyonov said. “We are ready to give them all necessary support.”
The business group called the Indian-Crimean Partnership is an association of Indian business circles, mainly from the financial center of Mumbai. The group initiated the signing of the memorandum.
“The association is comprised of some 25 chief executives,” said Gul Kripalani, a seafood merchant who chairs the group. “Interest towards Crimea is growing every day, and we forecast that the association will include up to 250 entrepreneurs within a month,” he said, adding that the most promising cooperation area was developing the peninsula’s infrastructure.
“This could also be energy, including renewable energy sources, as well as food export to Crimea and import of Crimean wines,” Kripalani added.