India can raise $25bn for buying oil fields: Aiyar

Energy-hungry India can invest up to $25 billion for acquisitions of overseas oil and gas fields.

"We are in a position to raise $25 billion for acquiring oil and gas properties abroad," petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said today.

ONGC Videsh (OVL) generally faces Chinese competition in bidding for oil and gas assets abroad - a rivarly which has seen the asking price for the properties shoot up. "When the world's most energy-thirsty countries pit against each other, the bid price for the limited properties available goes up," Aiyar said.

He added that while India and China would continue to be dictated by market forces and can compete in some areas, there are possibilities of working together.

Citing the example of the Greater Nile oil project in Sudan where OVL and China's CNPC are working together without any clash of interest, he said areas of mutual interest need to be identified so that the nations can work together in achieving energy security.

"My ambition is not to compete with China, but to explore ways and means of partnering with it," he said.