GAIL works out aggressive strategies for its business

New Delhi: GAIL (India) Ltd has worked out aggressive strategies for its exploration and production, petrochemical, and city gas business. Speaking to newspersons at the sidelines of a press conference to announce the ‘Fifth Asia Gas Partnership Summit -2008’ scheduled to be held in New Delhi on April 14-15, Mr U.D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, said that his company would aggressively participate in the seventh New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) rounds.

Project tie-up:

Apart from bidding for offshore and shallow water blocks the company would selectively bid for deepwater blocks, he said. As regards the company’s tie-up with Reliance Industries Ltd for petrochemical projects, he said, “We had identified 10 countries for setting up the mega petrochemical plant. A working group will shortlist three of the identified countries. We may then narrow on one or two for setting up the plant.”

The two companies would float a special purpose vehicle with equal stake to set up the overseas petrochemical plant. The countries include Qatar, Russia, Australia, Angola, South Africa, Mexico, Russia and Former Soviet Union countries.

In the domestic front, the two companies — GAIL and Reliance Industries — would cooperate in areas of distribution and marketing of petrochemicals, including product swapping. The two companies already have an agreement for co-operation in the gas sector.

Gas summit:

The two-day gas summit, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and GAIL, is supported by International Gas Union. Its theme is “The Asian Gas Market and Energy Security.