The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan co-chaired the 3rd India-Canada Energy Dialogue with Mr James Gordon Carr, Minister of Natural Resources of Canada in New Delhi today. Canada and India bilateral relationship was elevated to “Strategic Partnership’ during the visit of the Prime Minister Modi to Canada in 2015. Canada is also a prominent G-20 member.During the Energy Dialogue, both sides discussed aspects of bilateral energy sector engagements. These included, inter-alia, Indian investments in Canadian upstream sector, sourcing of crude and technologies from Canada, and the recently launched Discovered Small Fields Bidding Round. Canada has some of the world's most advanced technologies in the hydrocarbon sector. Both sides also discussed regulatory best practices in the hydrocarbon sector, collaboration in the field of technology, including R&D, Shale gas and gas hydrates technology and clean fuel technology.Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has a participating interest of 10% in Pacific North West LNG Project in British Columbia along with Petronas of Malaysia and other partners.
Indian Oil is expected to offtake 1.34 MMT of LNG once the project is operational. In this context, Sh Pradhan requested his Canadian counterpart for expediting the required federal environmental clearances for the project to take off at an early date. He also invited participation of Canadian oil and gas companies to actively participate in Indian hydrocarbon sector infrastructure projects, including the gas sector.In the spirit of growing partnership and friendship in the hydrocarbon sector, both sides also discussed their commitment to expand, enhance and deepen the scope of Canada-India Energy Dialogue through mutual consultation, including in trade and investment in oil and gas, clean technology, electricity, renewables and energy efficiency. Across each theme, both sides agreed to work to promote business-to-business, research-to-research and regulator-to-regulator collaboration between the two countries. Both agreed to work towards enhancing understanding of policies, programs and regulatory practices in both countries, to promote and facilitate greater two-way trade and investment in the oil and gas sectors, including clean technology applied to the sector, for mutual economic benefit. A Joint Statement was also issued on the occasion.