Deora: Joining hands

New Delhi, Dec. 15: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Chinese oil firm Sinopec have signed an MoU to increase cooperation in refining, petrochemicals and exploration.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) will facilitate increased cooperation in the refinery and petrochemicals segments, an IOC statement said. This will give a fillip to Indian Oil, which has drawn up big plans for the petrochemicals business.

The other areas of cooperation include international trade and exploration and production activities in third world countries, collaboration in engineering and technical services, exchange of knowledge and technology in operations, refinery optimisation and training.

The MoU was signed in Beijing by B.M. Bansal, director (planning and business development) of IOC, and Chen Qi, director-general of Sinopec, a major integrated national oil company of China with presence in refining, petrochemicals and exploration and production.

The MoU was signed during the ongoing visit of petroleum minister Murli Deora to Beijing to attend a meeting with energy ministers of other oil importing countries — the US, China, Japan and Korea. IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria and other senior ministry and oil PSU officials were present at the signing ceremony. The minister said the MoU would benefit both companies and countries.

IOC also held talks with Sinochem, another large Chinese company, with which it has an MoU for cooperation in international trade.

Behuria and Sinochem president Liu Deshu want the agreement to include collaboration in the areas of overseas exploration and production activities, petrochemicals and chemicals. Bansal will hold meetings with Sinochem officials to draw up the broad framework of cooperation in these areas.

With the Opec members deciding to cut production to prevent prices from declining, China has hosted a meeting of major oil buyers to draw up a collective strategy to tackle the issue.