India-UAE sign pacts on LNG supplies, nuclear power cooperation as Crown Prince visits New Delhi

New Delhi: State-run entities of India and UAE on Monday signed pacts in the energy space during the visit of Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to New Delhi.

The two countries signed five agreements including a long-term LNG supply contract between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on nuclear cooperation between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp.

The agreement for LNG supply of 1 million metric tonnes per annum to IOCL by ADNOC is the third such long-term contract signed in just over a year. Both IOCL and GAIL had previously signed long-term agreements for 1.2 MMTPA and 0.5 MMTPA, respectively, with ADNOC.

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The Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd (ISPRL) also signed an MoU with ADNOC and ISPRL to explore more opportunities for ADNOC to participate in India’s strategic crude reserves and the renewal of their storage and management agreement on mutually acceptable terms and conditions. 

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ADNOC, the national oil company of the UAE, joined Phase-I of the India’s SPR programme and has stored 5.86 million barrels of its crude in Mangalore. In 2018, it signed another MoU with ISPRL to explore storing ADNOC crude oil at ISPRL’s underground oil storage facility at Padur, which has a 2.5 million tonne capacity.

In another major tie-up in the energy space, a production concession agreement for Abu Dhabi Onshore Block 1 between Urja Bharat and ADNOC has been signed. Urja Bharat is a joint venture of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and BPCL’s subsidiary Bharat Petro resources Ltd. The concession entitles Urja Bharat to bring crude oil to India, thereby helping in ensuring energy security, said an official statement.

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Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE minister of industry and advanced technology and the MD and Group CEO of ADNOC Group is also in the national capital. The Union minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri met the UAE minister and described the meeting as “very extensive & fruitful”.

“In our meeting today, we discussed ways to further cement our already comprehensive partnership which spans across the entire hydrocarbon value chain,” Puri said in a tweet.