”India seeking oil assets abroad”

India is seeking oil and gas assets abroad to meet the energy needs of a rapidly expanding economy. Among the areas where it is looking for such assets in terms of equity participation as well as production and exploration contracts are Central Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Stating this here on Thursday, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said the country’s self-sufficiency in oil had fallen from 63 per cent in 1989-90 to 30 per cent in 2000-1. Addressing TERI’s sixth oil and gas conference, he said: “The situation is only likely to get worse in the future.”

..Similarly, he said natural gas availability is much lower than the demand. To meet the country’s needs, he said efforts were being made to pursue gas pipeline project both on the eastern and western land frontiers.

The Hindu