Tuesday 6 July 2010

INDIA, CHINA AND OIL

Economic Times

INDIA WAY BEHIND CHINA IN SECURING PETROLEUM SUPPLIES

Bloomberg

The Economic Times, July 6 2010

Oil minister Murli Deora travelled to Nigeria, Angola, Uganda, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela this year, leading a record number of delegations to gain oil for the world’s third-fastest-growing major economy. The flurry of visits is part of a new drive to find oil for India’s 1.2 billion people after losing out to China in at least $12.5 billion of contracts in the past year.

India proposed a sovereign wealth fund to bid for reserves, told Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India to make a major acquisition each this year, and raised the amount they can spend without government approval to Rs 50 billion ($1.1 billion). “There is a new push,” said NM Borah, chairman of Oil India. “Going abroad is part of the government’s policy — diplomatic support is very, very crucial as we search for assets overseas.” India’s energy use may more than double by 2030 to the equivalent of 833 million metric tonnes of oil from 2007, while China’s demand may rise 87% to 2.4 billion tonnes, the International Energy Agency said.

India faces an uneven contest to close the gap with China, which is dipping into $2.4 trillion of foreign currency reserves to buy stakes in oil and natural gas fields from Iraq to Uganda, compared with India’s $250 billion in foreign exchange reserves. State-run Chinese companies spent a record $32 billion last year acquiring energy and resources assets overseas versus India’s single $2.1 billion investment by ONGC. China’s June 19 decision to allow the yuan to appreciate will strengthen the hand of Chinese companies buying overseas.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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