India’s Business Standard says India’s Petroleum Ministry secretary SC Tripathi last week said India wanted a marketing presence in China's hydrocarbon sector by taking equity in Kazakh projects. India has also said it wanted to be part of any Kazakh-China pipeline.
India has been outbid by China in many overseas petroleum projects, including a large Angolan field where Royal Dutch Shell wanted to sell its stake to ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) but China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) managed to grab the stake. Similarly, in Indonesia, China beat India to stakes in five oilfields.
But the two countries were working together in Sudan where both OVL and China National Petroleum Corporation had equity in the Greater Nile Project.
India currently ranks sixth in the world in terms of petroleum demand, but is projected to replace South Korea and emerge as the fourth largest consumer of energy, after the United States, China and Japan, by 2010.
