Oil India seeks more hydrocarbon concessions globally

India's second largest public sector company Oil India Limited (OIL) is seeking more hydrocarbon concessions across the globe, including Brazil and Mexico.

"We are aggressively looking for a lot of good property from where we can bring crude oil into India," Sunil Kumar Srivastava, chairman and managing director, told PTI yesterday.

"The government of India is very supportive of our overseas ventures. They are encouraging us to go global to help reduce energy import volumes," he said.

"The more oil and gas we bring into the country, it would help reduce the country's energy import bill," he said on the sideline of the Singapore International Energy Week.

India imports about 75% of its crude oil and 30% of its natural gas requirements a year.

Among its major ventures abroad, OIL has invested $900 million on 4% farm-in stake in offshore Mozambique.

OIL and ONGC Videsh (OVL) had announced a 10% farm-in acquisition with Mozambique in January this year.

The company operates in 11 overseas countries and produces small quantities of hydrocarbon in the United States, Venezuela and Russia.

Srivastava, along with B C Tripathi, chairman and managing director of GAIL and Nishi Vasudeva, chairman and managing director of Hindustan Petroleum were among the eight nominees for Platts Asia CEO of Year award which went to Chengyu Fu, chairman of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group).