New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday led an Indian delegation at talks with Norwegian experts on developing a hi-tech deep-sea oil and gas exploration ecosystem in India as the country plans to step up the hunt for hydrocarbons.

“As India plans to explore over 2.5 lakh sq kms in Open Acreage Licensing Policy Round 10 in one of the largest offshore exploration bidding rounds globally, we are trying to develop a full E&P deepwater technology ecosystem in India, under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the minister said in a statement on X.

“In a roundtable with representatives of Offshore Energy Cluster in Bergen, Norway we held invigorating discussions on technologies including well services, subsea operations, testing, maintenance operations, drilling tools, drilling submersible rigs, well completion services, high pressure high temperature wells, drillships, monitoring technologies covering the entire gamut of hydrocarbons exploration, particularly deep sea exploration by the Norwegian energy professionals,” Puri said.

Representatives from leading companies in the oil and gas sector, including Technip FMC, Reach Subsea, DNV Group, Odfjell Drilling, CCB Subsea, Shearwater, Innovasjon Norge, and NORWEP, along with representatives from Equinor, participated in the meeting. Norway’s Minister of Energy, Jostein Dahl Karlsen, was also present on the occasion.

Earlier in the day, Puri visited Norway’s state-of-the-art carbon dioxide terminal.

“In our continued quest to provide momentum to India’s efforts to achieve energy security under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I visited the Northern Lights CO2 Terminal in Bergen, Norway. It is the largest project for carbon storage funded by the Norwegian Government and partnered by Equinor, Shell & Total Energies,” Puri said in a post on X.

“We are reviewing this, and similar projects, to upgrade and expand India’s energy capabilities. Norway’s expertise in deepwater exploration, seismic oil surveys, offshore wind and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies aligns well with India’s ambitious energy transition agenda,” he added.

Norway’s unique terminal in Bergen can store up to 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. It has an open and flexible infrastructure to transport CO2 from capture sites by ship to a receiving terminal in western Norway for intermediate storage, before being transported by pipeline for safe and permanent storage in a reservoir 110 km away from shore and 2,600 metres under the seabed.

–IANS

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