India, Russia Working Group Discusses LNG Cooperation & Bilateral Investment

The 8th Session of the India-Russia Working Group on Priority Investment Projects has been taking place in Delhi, co-chaired by Amardeep Singh Bhatia, Secretary of the Indian Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, and Vladimir Ilichev, Russia’s Deputy Economic Development Minister. The session took place in the framework of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation.

Ilichev said that “Russia’s largest natural gas producer is interested in in-depth cooperation with Indian companies at all stages of the project for exploration, production, processing and sale of natural gas.” That almost certainly refers to Novatek, who are the main shareholder of the Yamal LNG project. Yamal LNG is a large-scale LNG plant that produced approximately 20 million tonnes of LNG per annum. Novatek also owns the huge Arctic LNG 2 plant.

Both Novatek and Gazprom have faced difficulties in exporting their products the past three years due to western sanctions and Europe disconnecting its supply pipelines. Both companies are repositioning themselves to eastern markets, however this can take time. Indian interest may well be in both the Yamal and Arctic projects, investing in these regions to secure their own supplies and insert themselves into the supply chain to generate cashflow. Russia is assisting India to develop its own fleet of icebreakers.

The session was followed by the 2nd Edition of the India-Russia Investment Forum, organised in collaboration with Invest India, the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

That saw active participation from over 80 Russian businesses, including entrepreneurs, financial institutions, cargo companies, business chambers, and officials from both countries. The two sides approved a roadmap for promising new investment projects with India following the working group meeting.

Current Russia-India bilateral trade is running at US$66 billion with a target to increase this to US$100 billion by 2030. India is a key member of the BRICS group and is also a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Regionally, it is a full trade partner in the SAARC and BIMSTEC trade blocs.