Energy business between Russia and India

Atomstroyexport is building two 1,000 MW power units at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamilnadu. Kudankulam nuclear power plant and has recently supplied fuel for Tarapur, is also looking for a large share of the anticipated increase in nuclear energy projects in India if the Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines are revised to accommodate India.

Under the nuclear deal worth tens of billions dollars, Russia will construct and provide the fuel for between 12 to 16 nuclear power plants in India, as well as cooperate in disposing of the resulting nuclear waste.

Russian companies Silovye Mashiny (Power Machines) and Technopromexport provide technical assistance and supply equipment for the construction of the Sipat thermal power plant (TPP) in Chhattisgarh (three power units of 660 MW each), the Barh TTP in Bihar (3 x 660 MW), and the Obra TTP in Uttar Pradesh (5 x 200 MW). Recently, the construction of the Teri hydropower plant in Uttaranchal was completed (4 x 250 MW) with Russian assistance. India has invited Russia to explore its hydrocarbon reserves as Asia’s third-largest oil consumer seeks less dependence on oil and gas imports and looks to attract more investment in its energy sector.

Russian giant Gazprom received an invitation to co-operate in two upstream gas projects in India from Oil India Ltd. Oil and Natural Gas Corp was also in talks with Russia’s Bashneft to help the oil firm develop the Arctic Trebs and Titov oilfields. India’s state-run Tehri Hydroelectric Development Corp. Ltd (THDC) is in talks with Russia’s premier Hydro Power Institute (HPI) for setting up projects in Central Asia, which may allow Indian companies to gain a strategic toehold in the region. HPI and Tehri Hydro share a long partnership, having worked on the 1,000MW Tehri dam and hydroelectric project in Uttarakhand.

RusHydro Group, Russia’s biggest hydropower-generating company, owns HPI. This development assumes significance given India’s plan for signing an umbrella agreement with Russia for the energy sector during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to India this month.

The Rosatom State Nuclear Energy State Corporation has offered its Indian partners cooperation in the extraction of uranium on Russian territory and on the territories of third countries. The talks on cooperation in this field were conducted under the leadership of the Director General of Rosatom Sergei Kiriyenko at the latest session of the Russian-Indian inter-governmental commission on trade and economic cooperation, which took place in Delhi.

Russia is ready to give India a chance to become an investor and to buy some shares in the Elkon uranium deposit in Yakutia, which is regarded as the world’s second biggest deposit of uranium in the world, and to jointly extract uranium there. At the moment these proposals are being considered by UCIL (Uranium Corporation of India Ltd.) All materials have already been handed over to India. This spring Russia and India agreed a “road map” plan for the development of cooperation in this field, which includes the most significant, in the number of energy units, order for the Russian nuclear engineers, for the construction of a nuclear power plant abroad, and also for interaction in machine building and uranium extraction.

Eyeing the over $100 billion civilian nuclear market in India, Russia's global nuclear project company Atomstroyexport is holding talks with Larsen and Toubro for setting up a joint venture to manufacture equipment required for construction of atomic power plants.

Russia wants to increase annual trade with India from the current level of about $8 billion per year to $20 billion by 2015. New Delhi wants Russia to increase the amount of uranium fuel it receives from Russia.

Russia is considering inviting India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp to develop oil and gas fields in Russia

ONGC has already agreed to cooperate with oil-to-telecoms group Sistema, which controls assets in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, and may also gain access to lucrative oil and gas projects in Russia's far north, the government said.

Another important agreement will be in the civil nuclear sphere, where both sides will seek to fill in more details to the umbrella agreement signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow in December last year.