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India, Qatar sign oil pact, discuss Indians'
welfare
Monday April 09, 2012 07:41:26 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi:
India and energy-rich Qatar, home to half a million Indians,
Monday sealed six agreements in diverse areas, including an
overarching pact on cooperation in oil and gas exploration.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with Qatar's Emir Sheikh
Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who began a three-day visit to India
Sunday, on a range of issues, including boosting trade and
investment as well as energy ties between the two countries.
Issues relating to the welfare of Indian workers in the Gulf
country were also discussed.
During the talks, India is understood to have expressed its
keenness to export more oil and LNG from Qatar. The Qatari side is
broadly positive towards the Indian proposal, but there are
pricing issues that remain to be sorted out.
After the talks, India's Petroleum Minister S. Jaipal Reddy and
Qatar's Energy Minister Mohammed Bin Saleh al-Sada signed a pact
on establishing a cooperative framework to enhance bilateral
cooperation in oil and gas.
The pact envisages cooperation in the areas of upstream and
downstream oil and gas activities. It is expected to encourage and
promote investment and cooperation between two ministries of oil
and gas and through affiliated companies.
Qatar, which holds the world's third-largest natural gas reserves
after Russia and Iran, has an LNG (liquefied natural gas) export
capacity of 77 million tonnes a year.
India buys 7.5 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar under a long-term
contract.
India imported 5.6 million tonnes of oil from Qatar in 2010-11 and
is willing to increase the imports.
Three agreements were signed in the fields of educational
exchanges, cultural contacts and promoting tourism.
A memorandum of agreement was signed between the Reserve Bank of
India and Qatar Central Bank.
The pact will establish an arrangement for sharing of supervisory
information and enhancing cooperation in the area of banking
supervision.
Another pact on exchange of experiences, information and expertise
in the field of legal affairs was also signed.
Vice-President Hamid Ansari, United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
chair Sonia Gandhi and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, also leader of
the opposition in Lok Sabha, also called on the emir of Qatar.
The visit of Qatar's emir underlines India's burgeoning ties with
the Gulf region, which contributes over 50 percent of India's oil
imports.
The region is home to over six million Indians who send $30
billion in remittances.
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