Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) have signed an agreement to jointly develop the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (RRPCL) in India
Around 1.2 mmbbl per day integrated mega refinery and petrochemicals complex is supposed to be opened at Ratnagiri, located 346km south of Mumbai in Maharashtra, India.
This came during a recent meeting between the two sides following a joint workshop organised by ADNOC and the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on expanding investments and partnerships in the oil and gas industry.
Sheikh Abdullah, minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, the UAE, and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, restated their governments’ wish to make a deeper and stronger partnership between the two countries in the energy sector, particularly in the fields of exploration, refining, petrochemicals and petroleum products marketing.
During the meeting, ADNOC team detailed the investment and partnership opportunities in ADNOC’s operations, in particular the recently announced offshore and onshore exploration and production licenses, which, for the first time, have been opened for competitive bidding, and ADNOC’s downstream expansion plans.
Opportunities for collaboration between ADNOC and India’s growing refining sector were also explored, as well as possible expansion of ADNOC’s relationship with ISPRL and the long-term supply of ADNOC crude oil and petrochemicals within India and petroleum products marketing and retail.
Since the 1980s, bilateral trade between the two countries has soared from US$182mn to about US$53bn annually, of which US$18bn is oil related.
By 2020, bilateral trade between the two countries is expected to reach US$100bn as India’s economy gathers momentum.
Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s minister of petroleum and natural gas, said, "The UAE has been an important partner in India's energy security and ADNOC has played a key role in this. This mutually advantageous relationship has immense potential which we tried to explore during the company level workshops today and the high-level government meetings.
