Shri Aiyar proposes participation in Oil Fields, Pipelines and Petro-Chemical Projects in Kazakhstan
Indo-Kazakhstan Joint Commission meets in Astana
Following is the
text of Opening remarks made today
by the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Mani Shankar
Aiyar at the meeting of
Indo-Kazakhstan Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific, Industrial and
Cultural Cooperation being held at
Astana, Kazakhstan :
“I am truly delighted to be in Kazakhstan. Thank you
for the warmth of your hospitality and the cordiality with which our
discussions have proceeded since yesterday. Although this is my first visit to
Kazakhstan, your great country is no stranger to us. Over the centuries, deep
ties of history, culture and civilization have bound our countries together.
The Silk Route was, of course, the lifeline for the movement of goods and
peoples between India and Kazakhstan and, indeed, right across the continent of
Asia. Even as we imported silk, we furnished textiles, metal-ware, foodstuff
and spices to our neighbours.
2. Alas,
in the Era of Empire, the trading interests of outside powers led to military
conquest followed by foreign domination and thus to the gross exploitation of
colonised peoples. It also led tragically to the disruption of our millennial
exchange of mutual spiritual and intellectual intercourse: Buddhism, which travelled
from India across to Central Asia and the soft balm of Sufic thought and
practice which traversed the high mountains that separate us and found a warm
welcome in our land. Our ties in Asia have endured over centuries. They have
enriched both our civilizations. We continue to cherish them today.
3. Your Excellency, India
was among the first countries to welcome Kazakhstan into the comity of free
nations in 1991. We welcomed you as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious,
pluralistic nation that respected different beliefs even as it endeavoured to
provide happiness and prosperity to its people. India has been a friend and
partner of Kazakhstan, even as Kazakhstan has been a friend and partner of
India’s. The architect of this singular relationship has been President
Nursultan Nazarbaev. With his vision of a peaceful and prosperous Kazakhstan,
and his vigorous leadership in pursuing and realising this vision, President
Nazarbaev has been a stalwart among world leaders. His visit to India in 2002
was a high point in the development of friendship and cooperation between our
countries. I look forward to conveying to him in person the greetings of our
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who has charged me with the duty of
emphasizing the high importance my country and my Government attach to the
consolidation of our historic ties with Kazhakstan. This meeting of our Joint
Commission augurs well for the further nurturing of these ties into new
dimensions in this 21st century, which bids fair to be the Asian
Century.
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,
4. Our bilateral relations
have been strengthened by exchanges of high-level visits, the finalisation of
important agreements, and our participation in important regional initiatives
to promote peace and prosperity. In this context, I specifically note the
finalisation of the CICA “Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting
Dialogue among Civilizations”, a path-breaking initiative on the part of
President Nazarbaev. I also draw your attention to Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi’s path-breaking Action Plan for a Nuclear-Weapons-Free and Nonviolent
World Order, presented in 1988 to the Third Special Session of the UN General
Assembly on Disarmament. Fifteen years on, the Action Plan continues to be the
sheet-anchor of our international approach to sustained peace and universal
disarmament, beginning with nuclear disarmament and the disarmament of other
weapons of mass destruction.
5. The
very close political ties flourishing between our two countries encourage us to
identify and pursue the strengthening of our economic relations. The most
significant area in this regard is that of oil and gas. We have already
had extensive dialogue in this regard, but much more needs to be done, in
regard to jointly conducting seismic surveys of hitherto unexplored properties;
joint exploration and production; improved and enhanced oil recovery in older
fields; and building domestic and cross-border pipelines. We also look to
downstream opportunities for joint ventures in gas processing; petrochemicals
and other oil- or gas-based industries; and city gas distribution. Our cooperation needs to be developed
in an integrated manner involving Indian investments in the Kazakh hydrocarbon
sector, including not just E&P activities but the development of various
components of the entire value chain as well as infrastructure development such
as evacuation networks to the relevant markets. These require detailed
study and frequent interaction. I hope Your Excellency we might agree to the
establish of an inter-sessional Joint
Working Group on Hydrocarbons under the aegis of this Joint Commission to
pursue the possibilities in this regard.
6. As an earnest of the
importance we attach to being recognised by Kazakhstan as a valued partner in
the quest for hydrocarbons, ONGC Videsh Limited - OVL, the external arm of our
leading national oil company in E&P, in concert with our other oil and gas
sector public sector companies will be re-opening its offices in Kazhakstan,
subject, of course, to your kind permission. We need to be in continuous
dialogue and interaction to realise the full potential for cooperation in
energy. I think it is the sporadic
nature of our interaction that has proved inadequate in the recent past. We
also need to be wide in our perspective instead of being narrowly focussed on
one or two fields, as has been the case hitherto. Kazakhstan will thus emerge
as the only country where OVL and her Indian sister companies will have a
permanent presence even before securing any contracts. This is the earnest of our confidence that
Kazakhstan will in time become a major area of our external operations.
7. Your Excellency, may I
now seek your indulgence to mention certain specific Exploration &
Production and other projects in which we would be interested in participating
through OVL? These fall in four categories:
Category 1 – where
we seek immediate participation in E&P in association with the Kazakh
companies:
(i) Tengiz (Oil Field)
(ii) Kashagan (Oil Field)
(iii) Kurmangazy
(Exploration Block)
(iv) Darkhan (Exploration
Block)
Category 2 – where
we would like to evaluate E&P opportunities through the Technical Working
Group that is proposed in the MOU to be signed between us. These are:
(i) Evageny
(ii) Makhambet
(iii) Istai
(iv) Tolkin
(v) Satpaev
(vi) Zhambyl
(vii) Shetusy
(viii) Akku
(ix) Ablaikhan
These are the exploration blocks that have been identified in the
Caspian Sea; however, not enough technical information or data is available
with us, and so we are yet to evaluate the prospectivity of these
opportunities. We would, therefore, like to examine the technical data with our
Kazakh associates with a view to further pursuing these possibilities. Of
course, we would be more than happy to look at any other fields or blocks that
you might wish to propose to us.
Category III: joint
seismic surveys to establish the prospectivity of assets that have not been
hitherto surveyed or require more detailed study. In this context, we might
also consider technological cooperation, and academic R&D exchanges between
our scientists and students.
Category IV – Jointly
undertaking exercises in Improved and Enhanced Oil Recovery (IOR/EOR) in older,
depleting fields in Kazakhstan.
8. Similarly,
Your Excellency, the Indian public sector gas company, GAIL (India) Ltd. would
be interested in participating in the following specific projects:
(i) Kazakh-China Pipeline
(a) N.E.
Pipeline [Variant 1] :
Geographic location: Ishim-Astana-Karaganda-China:
GAIL would like to be considered as a project consortium partner & offer
services in pipeline O&M.
(b) West-East
Pipeline [Variant 2] :
Geographic location: KC Makhat-China: GAIL
would like to considered as a project consortium partner & offer services
in pipeline O&M.
(c) Bukhara-Almaty
Branch Trunk Pipeline [Variant 3]:
Geographical location: KC Shalkar-KC
Shamianovka-China: GAIL would like to be considered as a project consortium
partner & offer services in pipeline O&M.
(ii) Gas Processing
Plants at:
a. Atyrau
b. Akhtau
(iii) Petrochemicals
Plants, in association with other Indian public sector undertakings, at:
a. Atyrau
b. Akhtau
9. Your Excellency, we are
both Asian countries. We are part of the great Asian resurgence that is
compelling world attention. It is here in Asia that Nature has placed the bulk
of its natural resources, above all fossil fuels. Our continent is home to the
largest deposits of oil. It is also the gas reservoir of the world, holding
more than half the gas reserves established globally. It is by tapping these
vast reserves of energy that the West has overtaken us in the last few
centuries. This was not always the case. Through most of human history, it is
Asia that has been in the vanguard of the advancement of human civilization, as
much in the economic domain as in other spheres of human endeavour. If our
continent is to recover that pride of primacy we will have to forge a pan-Asian
community of interest in which Asian buyers and Asian sellers become joint
Asian investors in shared Asia assets; work towards a pool of Asia technology
on which they can draw to mutual benefit; and establish business practices
adapted to Asian realities and the Asian ethos. Tragically, however, ours is
the most divided continent on the globe. Where America, north and south, have
their Organization of America States, and Africa its Africa Union, and Europe
its European Union, we in Asia are still to translate our Asian heritage and
our Asian identity into Asian fora. Cooperation in hydrocarbons – the engine of
growth - provides the opening to wider Asian co-operation. If we could link our
respective National Gas Grids into a pan-Asian grid, all of us stand to
benefit. A mere glance at the world map of existing pipelines shows how
concentrated is the gas pipeline network in Europe and North America and how
scattered in all of the developing world, including much of Asia. Happily, in
the last few years we have seen new initiatives to link North Asian sources of
supply, across eastern Siberia, to the Asian Pacific coast. From and through
your own country links are being established from Central Asia to China. The
ASEAN network is progressing well. In our part of the Asian continent, we are
moving with all deliberate speed to link Iran to India through Pakistan and
Myanmar to India through Bangladesh. I soon intend visiting Turkmenistan and
Afghanistan to see whether pipelines could not run from the heart of Central
Asia to the hydrocarbon-hungry markets of South Asia. Once we identify the
missing links in this emerging network and connect them, all of Asia can be
brought on a common grid. Our Joint Working Group might discuss in detail this
vision of an Asia in common cooperative endeavour for peace, progress and
prosperity.
10. Towards
this end, Your Excellency, we convened recently in New Delhi a Round Table of
Asian Ministers for Regional Cooperation in the Asian Oil Economy that brought
together the principal West and South East Asian suppliers of oil – Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia – with the
principal Asian buyers – China, Japan, Korea and India. Encouraged by the very
considerable success of that meeting, I have broached with you the possibility
of holding a parallel or complementary meeting between the principal Central
Asian suppliers – Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan and perhaps
others, with the same four principal Asian buyers. I have prepared a non-paper
in this regard which I have already shared with our Russian friends. I have
also had the privilege of submitting a copy to you for the consideration of the
Kazakh authorities. I am expecting a favourable response from His Excellency
Minister Krishtenko when I meet him in Moscow next week. I understand he is due
here early next month. I look forward to hearing from you soon the official
reaction of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan to this initiative.
11. A proposal that has very
exciting prospects for both our countries and, indeed, the entire region of
Central and South Asia is the North-South Transport Corridor project
from Aktau on the Caspian Sea through Iran to the Arabian Sea. I am aware that
Kazakhstan is anxious to develop warehousing and distribution services at Aktau
port so that it emerges as a major centre for the transport of goods into
Kazakhstan from South and South-east Asia, and the Gulf. This port would also
be a major point for the export of goods through Kazakhstan to destinations
further south. I would like to mention to Your Excellency that Indian companies
would be interested in pursuing their participation in this ambitious project
in collaboration with Kazakh companies. We look forward to engaging with your
firms in this regard. We would also wish to explore with your experts the
possibility of linking Kazakh and other Central Asian oil and gas fields
through Aktau with India through the pipeline route, perhaps through
Turkmenistan, perhaps more economically through Iran.
12. Your Excellency, I would like to share
with you two ideas relating to the North South Corridor and the place of Akhtau
port in it. First, I do believe that
this Corridor should also be seen as an “energy corridor”, consisting of oil
and gas pipelines that link up with the pipelines in South Asia and bring
energy resources to India and then move
on to South-East Asia.
13. Secondly, I see the Corridor, both in
energy and transport terms, as binding Asia with Europe in a substantial,
mutually beneficial connection through Aktau, moving energy resources and
commercial products across South-East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, and
thence to North Asia and Northern and Western Europe. India will be an active partner in this ambitious endeavour.
Together, we must exert every effort to bring investments into the project from
the European Union and ASEAN, in addition, of course, to interesting our
partners, Iran and the Russian Federation, to make their vital contribution to
the development of Aktau as a major entrepot centre on the North-South
Corridor. This too needs detailed consideration. Perhaps we might study this
together further.
14. Military
Technical Cooperation is another area which has considerable
potential. There have already been
contacts between us to institutionalize technical cooperation in the area of
defence research and production. Since
our Defence forces have a similar equipment profile, it would be mutually
beneficial to explore new areas of cooperation, such as joint development of
defence equipment, consultancy, research, supply of spare parts for weapon
systems and modernization of existing equipment and infrastructure.
15. Creation
of Joint Ventures between defence technological organizations from both
countries would lead not only meaningful exchange of modern technologies but
could be of substantial commercial value.
A Kazakh defence industries delegation is to visit India towards the end
of this month. India supports this
important initiative. We will extend our full support to ensure its fruitful
outcome. In this context too, we might
set up a Sub-Commission on Military Technical Cooperation.
16. The other important area for bilateral
cooperation is that of information technology. We are ready to
support the development of a Software Technology Park in Kazakhstan. The
Software Technology Park of India (STPI), a society under the Indian Department of
Information Technology, has played an important part in India's global success in the Information,
Communication and Technology(ICT)sector, and is in a position to provide
technological assistance and infrastructural support to Kazakhstan's Technology
Park
project. In this regard, as suggested
by H.E. Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov yesterday, Indian IT companies could
associate themselves with Kazakh companies to develop software for the
hydrocarbons and financial sectors by setting up joint ventures in the
proposed Software Technology Park at Almaty. This will, however, require
the active collaboration of KazMunaiGaz and your banking and financial
institutions in identifying the kind of software which they would like to see
these joint ventures develop.
17. An Indian laboratory has
developed software called
"Geo-LIMIS", which has
been successfully
installed in a Kazakh agricultural institute. This software is aimed at minimising the
destruction by locusts of agricultural produce. The project has attracted
world-wide attention and we have been approached by nearly fifty countries
around the world for similar technical assistance. There are similar other exciting new possibilities available in this
broad sector of computer software and telecommunications to utilise Satellite
Remote Sensing and GIS data for agriculture monitoring,
command area management,
forest monitoring, snow
mapping, land degradation studies, and resource development
planning for land and water.
18. Indo-Kazakh cooperation in the area of Science
and Technology has made
progress,
but some important proposals need to be pursued more vigorously such as solar energy and alternative energy
sources; processing of minerals and coal; non-ferrous metallurgy; space research;
agriculture, and environmental protection. We would also be in a position to
support your interests in the fields of satellite technology, digital cartography and
photogrammetry, geo-information systems and cadastre. We await the receipt of
your specific interests in this regard.
19.
There
has been considerable increase in our bilateral trade relations, with
two-way
trade standing at about $ 100 million. However, there is a vast untapped
potential that calls for a robust effort on the part of both of us. I would
particularly like to mention the need to pursue increased import into India of Kazakh
metal products, both precious and non-precious, such as silver, steel and
aluminium. On our part, we need to boost the export of tea, pharmaceuticals,
medical equipment, machinery, etc.
20. In this context, Your Excellency, I
would like to mention that certain Indian companies have payments
outstanding in respect of items exported by them to Kazakhstan. These pertain to
supplies of tea, hosiery gods and tobacco. I should be grateful if Your
Excellency could instruct the Departments concerned to expedite the
satisfactory settlement of these long-pending matters which constitute a small
but unnecessary irritant in our otherwise excellent economic ties.
21. Joint ventures constitute the basis of a long-term
partnership between our two countries: as
they increase in number, so do the bonds between two countries multiply, so
that over time the two countries have a direct vested interest in the success
and prosperity of their economic
partner. I am happy to see that Punj Lloyd have setup joint-ventures in the area of large and small-bore pipelines, as
also the setting up of a sulphur and tailgasre-processing plant. Again, it is a matter of satisfaction to us that company, which has a non-resident Indian as its
partner, has setup a major investment in he steel sector, Ispat Karamat.
We agree with our Kazakh friends that this project is a model joint investment venture.
As suggested by H.E. the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan yesterday, we
shall pursue joint venture proposals in the areas of Pharmaceuticals, Information Technology and machinery.
22. Your Excellency, India and Kazakhstan
are linked by history and culture by shared political values, and a deep and abiding
commitment to the prosperity of our peoples. We have a vision of a long-term partnership linked
together by trans-continental oil and gas pipelines and transport corridors. These pipelines and
transit routes are indeed the Silk Routes of the Asian century. I am confident
they will engender the Asian Resurgence which is all set to restore Asia to its
traditional place I the vanguard of the advancement of human civilization. I
hope we could meet again in India within a year, by February 2006.
Thank you.”
RCJ/ KC/ Kazakhstan visit (18.2.05)
(Release ID :7197)