New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS) India is hoping that the successful outcome of Sakhalin 1 oilfield project will be replicated in other projects in Russia. The Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is in discussion with state-owned Russian oil companies Rosneft and Gazprom for joint participation in Sakhalin 3, Petroleum Secretary R.S. Pande said here Tuesday.

“India had a stake of 20 percent in Sakhalin 1 and would be looking forward to that or more in Sakhalin 3,” he said.

Pande added that India was committed towards investing in a big way in the development of oil and gas in East Siberia.

“We intend to import one million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE) or oil equivalent of gas through such projects in Russia and are ready to invest in these,” he said.

“Such joint projects would be beneficial to both countries. Russia can attract billions of dollars for development in East Siberia and India will get assured supply. A small beginning of our investment would be made in those areas through our ongoing process for the acquisition of Imperial Energy.”

The UK-based Imperial Energy has oil assets in the Tomska region adjoining East Siberia.

Pande said India was also interested in another project, Vankor oilfield in the Krasnoyarsk region of East Siberia, which is slated to produce 20 million tonnes of oil annually.

“I am sure realising our commitment to invest in far-flung areas the Russian Government would favourably consider assigning us part stake in Trebs and Titov with established results in the Timan Pechora region,” added Pande.

The Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko and Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora had a bilateral meeting before the two-day India-CIS roundtable on hydrocarbons being jointly organised by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Shmatko is the chief guest at the roundtable.