Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and US Secretary for Energy Ernest Moniz have agreed to increase technical and institutional cooperation on hydrocarbons and energy.

The  agreed to enhance cooperation in “assessment of both onshore and offshore conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reserves in India, new technologies in development of biofuel and development of petroleum storage”, a petroleum ministry statement said of their meeting in Washington .

• The two ministers also agreed on the need for regular meetings of officials and experts from both sides.

• During his just-concluded visit to the US, Pradhan also launched a roadshow in Houston to promote the auction of 67 discovered small hydrocarbon fields in India.

• The cooperation on oil and gas is among one of the six work streams that are working under the aegis of India-US Energy Dialogue. Over the last decade, several areas of interest for cooperation in the field of oil and gas have been identified such as technology for production from marginal fields, shale structures, development of gas pipeline network and improving refinery efficiency etc.

• It is worth noting that GAIL has contracted for import of LNG from the US to the tune of 5.8 MMT per year from end 2017. Indian companies have also invested in shale oil and gas projects in the US, i.e. GAIL has 20% equity in Eagle Ford basin; IOC and OIL have 10% equity in Niobrara basin.