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MR MURLI DEORA

New Delhi May 2 The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Murali Deora, on the sidelines of the second Ministerial Energy Roundtable of Asian oil producing and major Asian oil importing countries, at Riyadh on Wednesday discussed with the Iranian Oil Minister, Mr Seyed Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, and the Pakistani Petroleum Minister, Mr Amanullah Khan Jadoon, further cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector including the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project.

In his meeting with the Iranian Minister, Mr Deora further discussed the issue of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract as a follow-up of their last meeting in Tehran, an official statement issued here said. It may be recalled that Mr Deora had recently returned from his tour of Iran where he had discussed both the IPI project as well as the LNG contract, which was signed in June 2005 with Iran.

Mr Deora also had a bilateral meeting with the Iraqi Oil Minister, Mr Hussain Al-Shahristani, and raised the issue of moving forward with ONGC Videsh Ltd's participation in Iraq's upstream oil sector. The Iraqi Minister invited Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Engineers India Ltd to consider participation in the downstream sector of Iraq in particular for the construction of oil refinery.

At the roundtable, Mr Deora emphasised the need for sustainable international oil prices stating that high oil prices are neither in the interest of oil importing countries nor beneficial to the exporting nations.

Mr Deora also strongly supported the idea of greater inter-dependence, supplemented by cross-investment in energy markets to promote shared interest of energy producers and consumers. The Minister called upon Asian countries to explore various opportunities for forging partnerships in oil and gas sector.

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