According to its chairman, Ranjit Rath, state-run Oil India is looking into legal and diplomatic avenues to repatriate its $150 million in dividends from Russia.
BPCL, ONGC, Oil India, and Indian Oil Corporation all hold participating interests in various Russian oil and gas projects from which they get dividend payments on a regular basis.
Since February 2022, businesses have been collecting dividends but have been unable to transfer them outside of Russia because of banking restrictions following the Ukraine War and western sanctions against Moscow. According to Rath, the three companies—Indian Oil, BPCL, and the dividends—have a combined $450 million in dividends stranded in Russia.
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Oil India Keeping Every Aspect in Mind:
He added that the company is looking into legal, banking, and government-to-government possibilities to recover the dividends and that this is a “temporary phenomenon” and that the company is “very positive about investments in Russia”.
The moves by the producer cartel OPEC+, of which Russia is an important part, to reduce output have not had an impact on the production at Russian fields in which Oil India holds shares, according to Rath.
According to its chairman, Oil India will largely concentrate on local exploration and production. According to him, the company’s investment trajectory won’t be altered by rising oil prices. Since last year, a windfall tax has limited the amount of crude that state-run Indian producers may realise. The price of crude oil is currently higher than $92 a barrel.
In order to achieve its net zero objective by 2040, Oil India intends to invest 25,000 crore. Of this, Rs. 8,000 crore would be used to build ethanol facilities of the second generation. To lower its carbon footprint, the corporation plans to dramatically reduce gas flaring. In order to transmit currently unused gas to customers, it intends to dig a new pipeline and install compressors in remote areas.
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