ONGC said to be considering Russian pipelines

A transnational pipeline from Russia though Kazakhstan to India could be on the table for India's energy company ONGC, a managing director said.

India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. said it wants to start playing a larger role in the international energy market. DK Sarraf, chairman and managing director at ONGC, said his company was looking for more exploration opportunities in coordination with Russian oil company Rosneft.

"But the more important thing that will happen is direct transportation of hydrocarbons from [Russia] to India," he said in a Sunday interview with Indian business daily The Hindu. "It could be a pipeline from Russia, Kazakhstan to India."

According to the terms of a five-year energy plan, the Indian government has said it wants to add at least one transnational pipeline to the midstream sector from either Iran, Oman or Central Asia.

India has been party to discussions over a natural gas pipeline long planned from Iran and a rival project, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which is favored by Western powers.

ONGC in January said it expects to produce as much as 353 million cubic feet of natural gas from reserves off the Indian coast by 2018.