India, Japan to jointly hunt for oil, gas in fresh pastures

India and Japan will together explore oil and gas in a third country to enhance global energy security and build lasting partnerships in the sector. This was decided at the first ever meeting of ‘India-Japan Energy Dialogue’ held in Tokyo on April 23. The dialogue was launched with the aim of promoting comprehensive co-operation in the energy sector.

The two sides have agreed that co-operation in oil and gas sectors would not be restricted to exploration activities alone. Efforts would be made for co-operation in areas like methane hydrate, oil stockpiling and joint research on Asian markets.
Co-operation with Japan in oil exploration, especially in third countries, is expected to provide strategic edge to India’s oil companies in overseas bids. India already has similar arrangement with few other countries in this area.

The India-Japan Energy Dialogue meeting also decided to set up five working groups as well as a steering committee to co-ordinate joint efforts in different areas of energy co-operation. While joint efforts in the oil and gas sectors would be co-ordinated by separate working groups, four other groups would separately look after areas such as electricity and power generation, energy efficiency, coal and renewable energy.

Economic Times