India to seek oilfields from Iraq

23 May 2007

New Delhi: India plans to ask oilfields from Iraq in exchange for helping to rebuild the battered nation''s refineries when Iraq''s oil minister Hussein Al-Shahristani visits India this week on a four-day visit.

Petroleum minister Murli Deora said, "We have a joint working group (JWG) meeting on Friday where a host of bilateral issues will be discussed."

"They want our help in building refineries," Deora said. "When I met Al-Shahristani in Riyadh earlier this month, he wanted Indian companies to build a 8-10 million tonne refinery."

"Oil fields, refineries and other energy projects will be discussed during the meeting," he said.

India would like to start working on onshore block 8 that was awarded to ONGC Videsh Ltd by the deposed Saddam Hussein government and wants the US-backed government in Iraq to honour award of Tuba oilfield to a consortium of OVL, Reliance Industries and Sonatrach of Algeria.

The consortium had been short listed by the Saddam Hussein government before the US-led invasion of Iraq.