Venezuelan Embassy - Newsletter No.29

April 21, 2005
Venezuela and India will start project on heavy oil exploration in August

(Asia Pulse) - " Venezuela and India would start a pilot project on heavy oil exploration in Rajasthan in August, the central government said Wednesday. Oil India ltd and a Venezuelian company PDVSA have worked out details on stubbing at Baghewala in the Jaisalmer-Bikaner basin and to prepare blocks for crude oil exploitation, Union petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said at a national seminar on 'oil, gas and lignite scenario' here.

An Indian delegations would be visiting Venezuela later this month for the pilot project, he said.

As per the initial estimates, there were about 14.60 million tonnes of heavy oil reserves and 33.2 million tones of bitumen, he said. Aiyar announced that India and Russia would also work on the underground coal gasification for the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu as there were huge deposits of lignite and coal-based mines in the country, he said.

Aiyar also expressed concerns over decreasing oil sufficiency in the country from 50 to 30 per cent and said oil dependence on imports has risen to 85 per cent".