UAE’S ADNOC eyes projects in petrochemicals, refining
NEW DELHI: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) is looking to expand its presence in India by investing in the refining and petrochemicals sector and strategic petroleum reserves, a top emirate official said.
“India is very high on our strategic agenda and expanding our strategic reserve in India will be an item on the agenda to be discussed with our friends and counterparts in India,” ADNOC chief executive officer and UAE minister of state Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said on the sidelines of Petrotech 2019.
The UAE is looking at investing in refining and petrochemical projects and stocking more crude oil in India, the world’s thirdlargest energy consumer.
“We are looking at expanding investment portfolio in downstream sectors, refining and petrochemicals. We are only looking at strategic partnerships given that we can also bring our own crude. India is not only an important market for us. India is a very strategic partner. The UAE is expanding in all levels and all sectors and energy being one of it, we will continue to always look for ways to enhance our avenues of cooperation,” Al Jaber said.
Last June, ADNOC and Saudi Aramco had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for participating in the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Corp. Ltd (RRPCL), which is building a 60 million tonnes per annum refinery project in Maharashtra. The mega refinery to be set up with an estimated investment of ₹3 lakh crore, will be able to process 1.2 million barrels of crude oil per day.
The refinery project, which was announced in December 2015, was to be commissioned by 2022 but land acquisition delays have pushed the deadline to 2025.
“We are still at an early stage. We are still in the process of defining the scope and scale of the project. We are working very closely with our partners Saudi Aramco as well as our counterparts in India,” Al Jaber said.
RRPCL is a joint venture between the three state-run oil marketing companies, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd.
Aramco and ADNOC will together own 50% of the project but a division between them has not yet been announced. India’s oil marketing companies will together own the other 50%.
The UAE is also looking at storing more crude oil in Indian storages, Al Jaber said.
Currently, the UAE supplies a small quantity of oil to India.
Last November, India signed an initial pact to lease out a part of its underground strategic oil storage at Padur in Karnataka to ADNOC for storing crude oil.
India has built 5.33 million tonne (MT) of emergency storage, sufficient to meet its oil needs for 9.5 days, in underground rock caverns in Mangaluru and Padur in Karnataka and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
It has allowed foreign oil companies to store oil in these places on the condition that the stockpile can be used by New Delhi in case of an emergency. Aramco has also expressed its desire to venture into fuel retailing in India.