Oil Minister to visit Russia, Japan from October 22 and 26

23 Oct 2019

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will visit Russia and Japan between October 22 and 26 to boost energy ties with the two nations. The visit is a follow-up to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vladivostok, Russia, for the Eastern Economic Forum last month, an official statement said here.

"During his visit, the minister will have meetings with Sergey Tyrtsev, First Deputy Minister for Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, and with Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft," it said.

He will also visit the shipbuilding Complex, Zvezda and the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia's Far East. "Possible areas of collaboration in other sectors like coking coal, and shipping routes will also be discussed," it said.

During the visit, Engineers India Ltd (EIL) will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Russian National Chamber of Engineers to provide its services for upcoming projects across the hydrocarbons value chain in Russia.

At the invitation of the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Pradhan will visit Tokyo from October 25-26 to participate in the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity (GFSEC) Ministerial meeting.

Currently, Japan holds the chair of this Global Forum.

"The proposed GFSEC meeting will involve policy discussions," the statement said. "Further, the Minister will have a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Isshu Sugawara to discuss issues of bilateral collaboration in the fields of energy as well as steel."

Pradhan will also have meetings with Japanese steel industries to discuss strengthening collaborative investments in India.

In addition, meetings of the minister with his counterpart ministers from other countries are also scheduled, on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting.

India and Japan have a lot of synergies in the energy sector. In the run-up to energy transition in India to a gas-based economy, India is collaborating on a big scale with Japan in the LNG sector, to inter alia, exchange best practices and to develop a flexible global LNG market.