India looking at investments in Canada tar sands: state oil firm
2 days ago
MADRID (AFP) — India could invest up to 10 billion dollars (6.34 billion euros) in Canada's tar sands oil industry, the head of the country's state oil company said Thursday.
Canada has vast reserves of tar sands -- a dense mixture of sand, water and petroleum used to extract bitumen -- but the development of the industry is controversial because of its environmental impact.
"We have looked into those (tar sands) opportunities in Canada and done our due diligence," R.S. Sharma, the chairman and managing director of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), told AFP in an interview.
"In times to come, when we know that a resource base for oil and gas is drying up everywhere and the prices are going up so high, this production from tar sands is a good commercial proposition."
Asked about reports that India was considering investments of 2.0 to 2.5 billion dollars, he replied: "I would say 'why 2.0 to 2.5?' ... Our actual investment could be much larger than that.
"We have a strong financial resource base, so 2.5 billion is not the end. We can go up to 8.0 or 10 billion dollars."
He conceded that environmental concerns of extracting tar sands "are huge."
"We are studying the whole environment scenario."
The UN's top climate change official Yvo de Boer said soaring oil prices were making heavy forms of crude oil such has tar sands, which take energy-intensive extracting and refining, more attractive.
"There is a risk that as dirty forms of oil become commercially more attractive that would lead to an increase in emissions," de Boer, who heads the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told AFP.
There has been a surge in interest for tar sands given the possibility of a major source of oil from a stable country such as Canada.
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