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India ready to invest $2.5bn in tar sands


News wires

Indian companies could invest up to $2.5 billion for stakes in Canadian tar sands projects, a top official said today, as part of efforts to secure overseas energy assets to fuel the country's fast-growing economy.

Oil Secretary M.S. Srinivasan said at the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid the companies were looking to pick up holdings rather than buy foreign companies.

Earlier this year, the head of state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) R.S. Sharma said his company was interested in tar or oil sands opportunities in Canada and was willing to make a large investment, wrote Reuters.

Srinivasan said Indian companies had explored buying stakes in Alberta tar sands projects two years ago to help make up for stagnating domestic output.

Since then, companies from other countries, including China, South Korea and Norway, have snapped up northern Alberta unconventional crude assets, leading some analysts to wonder how much prime acreage remains up for grabs.

Canada's oil sands, the largest deposits of crude oil outside the Middle East, are the target of more than $100 billion of investment as the world's oil industry has found that returns amid surging oil prices outweigh the high cost of development.


Thursday, 03 July, 2008, 12:55 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 03 July, 2008, 13:29 GMT

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