India-Oman Joint Commission Meeting , co-chaired by Shri Suresh Prabhu , Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation of India , and HE Dr . Ali bin Masoud al Sunaidy , Minister of Commerce and Industry , on 16 July 2018 in Muscat reviewed India-Oman bilateral economic and commercial cooperation
ENERGY SECURITY : HIGH ON THE LIST OF PRIORITIES FOR INDIA AND OMAN
By Priti Prakash *
As India and Oman celebrate the 63rd anniversary of their diplomatic relationship , there is convergence in many areas of mutual cooperation . With Prime Minister Modi ’ s visit to Oman on 11 February 2018 , the historically close bilateral ties took a leap forward towards becoming a robust strategic partnership at all levels . India and Oman have a lot to give each other in a variety of fields - minerals and mining , manufacturing , logistics , infrastructure , tourism , agriculture and fisheries , IT and IT enabled-services , skills development , innovation , etc . Teh energy sector is another key area of collaboration between the two countries .
According to the joint statement released during Modi ’ s visit , ‘’ the Indian Prime Minister invited Oman to participate in the building of strategic oil reserves in India . The Sultan briefed the Indian Prime Minister on Oman ’ s own initiative to create strategic oil reserves in Ras Markaz near Duqm . The two sides agreed that there is broad scope for mutual cooperation in building their strategic oil reserves .’’
During the Prime Minister ’ s visit , the Indian ambassador to the Sultanate Indra Mani Pandey added that recently there has been an Indian investment in two projects in the Special Economic Zone in Duqm ( SEZD ), estimated to be worth $ 1.8 billion . The volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached $ 6.7 billion in 2017- 18 , registering a 67 % increase from $ 4 billion in 2016-17 .
The potential for India-Oman cooperation in the field of energy , including the oil and gas sector , solar energy and wind energy is boundless . In addition to export of power equipment , Indian companies can also participate in the power sector in Oman by providing consultancy services and executing power projects . On its part , the rapidly growing energy demands in India have contributed to the need for sustaining long term energy partnerships with countries like Oman .
Cooperation in Oil and Gas sector :
Building strategic oil reserves was emphasised by Oman during PM Modi ’ s visit , considering the huge oil reserves in the Gulf country .
The contentious MEIDP deep sea Gas Pipeline project , which has been slow in materialising , is planned to extend to over 1,400 km and transfer 31 million cubic meters of gas per day to India . SAGE , a private consortium based in India , is working on the transfer of gas which is sourced from Iran through the Iran-Oman undersea pipeline . Cost of building of the proposed pipeline at an acute depth of 3-3.5 kms is estimated to be around $ 5 billion .
A study on the Iran-India gas pipeline stated that natural gas imported through the over $ 4 billion line would cost $ 5-5.50 per million British thermal unit at the Indian coast , cheaper than the rate at which some of the domestic fields supply gas .
An ASSOCHAM report , widely published in the Indian media , argues that the proposed
32 • INDIA-OMAN • 2018