Singh: Meet menu

New Delhi, July 13: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to seek closer co-operation with Russian companies in oil and gas, nuclear reactors and avionics when he visits the country for the upcoming G-8 summit in St Petersburg.

Top officials said Singh would take up with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin the possibility of purchasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) extracted from the Sakhalin 1 fields and an agreement between ONGC Videsh and Rosneft for the Vankor, Sakhalin 3, Trebs & Titov and the Kurmangazy fields.

In return, India would offer Russian investors equity in its petroleum projects. The Centre will also encourage joint ventures between Indian oil PSUs and Russian companies for the country’s oil blocks.

The recent gas discoveries in the eastern coast will be showcased to Russian investors to induce them to participate in the country’s oil and gas hunt. Indian companies stand to benefit from the expertise of Russian outfits in extracting oil from frontier deep-sea blocks.

This will also signal that India is willing to accept Russian gas major Gazprom's suggestion that Russia will sell its gas through swap deals with central Asian countries such as Iran and Turkmenistan.

Russian investors will also be offered equity in the nuclear power sector. India aims to increase its nuclear power generation capacity from 3 gigawatts to 20 gigawatts by 2020 by setting up 31 new plants.

The energy shortfall of 10,000 mw is expected to rise at least three times in the next seven years. With dwindling coal stocks, hydel, nuclear and renewable energy are gaining priority in the country.

It is likely that rules making it mandatory for the government to invest 51 per cent in nuclear power plants will be relaxed, paving the way for entry of FDI in the sector.

Though US, French and Canadian companies have the edge in nuclear technology, officials believe that partnerships with Russian companies need to be encouraged given the history of collaboration between the countries in the nuclear sector.

Collaborations with the state-run NTPC for its proposed nuclear power plants are more likely, though French and US companies are also in the fray. However, private sector players such as Reliance and L&T are likely to seek partnerships from the Western countries.

Officials said the Russians were expected to bring up the issue of India’s rupee debt which now stands at about $1 billion. Moscow has long been seeking repayment of the debt through joint investment projects rather than in the form of Indian goods. But this is something India would be willing to accept only in a limited form.