Gail's first crude oil to IOC

Gail (India) has sold its first consignment of crude oil to Indian Oil Corporation's Koyali refinery in Gujarat. The crude was produced from block CB-ONN-2000/1 in the Cambay basin in which Gail holds 50 per cent participating interest while the operatorship lies with the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

Two tankers of 20,000 litre each were flagged off from the well head earlier this week. Crude oil is expected to bring in Rs 18 crore of annual revenues to the company.

It is expected to increase four time in the coming years. A company release said initial production from the field was around 350 barrels a day which was expected to increase to 1500 barrels in future.

Oil is being dispatched to the Koyali refinery through Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's central tank farms at Navagam (Gujarat) through tankers and pipelines.

The release said Gail was involved in exploration activities over an acreage of 67,118 square km. It also planned to invest about Rs 600 crore in exploration and production activities over the next three years, the release added.

Gail holds participatory interest in 13 exploration blocks, comprising two in NELP-1, five in NELP-2 and two in NELP-4, besides two farm-in blocks.

The company is in participation with ONGC, GSPC, Gazprom, Oil India, Indian Oil Corporation, Hardy Exploration & Production, Enpro Finance, Daewoo, ONGC Videsh and Korea Gas Corporation.

Gail's participating interest in these blocks varies between 10 to 80 per cent and in basins like Mahanadi, Bengal, Gujarat, Mumbai, Cambay, Assam-Arakan and Cauvery. Gail also has stake in the A-1 block in Myanmar. It is likely to get a stake in the A-3 block.

India and Russia have agreed to pool their resources for implementing joint projects in cutting-edge technology to serve their scientific and technological priorities.

This understanding was reached during the Union Minister of Science and Technology and Ocean Development Kapil Sibal's talks here with Russia's Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko during their talks here yesterday.

"The sides noted that favourable conditions existed for expanding interaction in the areas of bio-technology, nano-technology and information technology. They were in favour of concentrating their financial resources on joint projects, which would serve the interests of national scientific and techno logical priorities," an Indian embassy release said.

India and Russia have an integrated long-term programme (ILTP) of scientific and technological cooperation involving thousands of scientists in the best labs and research institutes of both countries.

In view of the growing significance of science and technology in the overall scheme of bilateral relations, Sibal and Fursenko agreed to hold annual inter-ministerial meetings to review the practical issues of cooperation in the field of science and technology and innovations.

Initially signed in 1985 by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ILTP withstood the collapse of the ussr and has been extended till 2010 by subsequent governments in both countries.

The issue of establishing interaction between young scientists of India and Russia was also discussed in detail during Sibal-Fursenko meeting.

It was proposed to examine the possibility of holding regular workshops, conferences and seminars in which they would participate.

This kind of interaction would not only promote the growth of academic mobility amongst young scientists, but would also strengthen bilateral ties in the area of science and technology for a long time to come.

To maintain the momentum ahead of Indo-Russian summit later this year sibal has invited Russian minister of education and science to make an official bilateral visit to india on the occasion of the 7-8 November 2005 global R&D summit 2005.