Venezuela, India plan oil exploration

Oil India and a Venezuelian company, PDVSA have worked out details on stubbing at Baghewala in the Jaisalmer-Bikaner basin and to prepare blocks for crude oil exploitation, Union petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Tuesday at a national seminar on 'oil, gas and lignite scenario' in New Delhi.

An Indian delegation would be visiting Venezuela later this month for the pilot project, he said. As per the initial estimates, there were about 14.60 million tonnes of heavy oil reserves and 33.2 million tones of bitumen, he said.

Aiyar announced that India and Russia would also work on the underground coal gasification for the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu as there were huge deposits of lignite and coal-based mines in the country, he said.

The minister said ONGC and Cairn were planning to build a refinery at Barmer in Rajasthan where Cairn has dug six wells with a capacity of 3 million tonnes of crude oil.

Aiyar also expressed concerns over decreasing oil sufficiency in the country from 50 to 30 per cent and said oil dependence on imports has risen to 85 per cent.

Heavy oil is a type of crude oil, which is very viscous and does not flow easily. The common characteristic properties are high specific gravity, low hydrogen to carbon ratios, high carbon residues, and high contents of asphaltenes, heavy metal, sulphur and nitrogen.