Jindal Drilling places orders for rigs worth $ 351 mln

New Delhi, Jan 7 (UNI) Jindal Drilling and Industry Ltd has said it has placed an order for two rigs worth 351 million dollars from US-based Noble Drilling Company, a subsidiary of global contract drilling behemoth Noble Corporation.

''The delivery of rigs is expected to be made by 2008 end. We are also in talks with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Reliance Energy Ltd for leasing out the two rigs,'' company's Managing Director Naresh Kumar told reporters during a conference.

Emphasising the growing oil consumption rate of India and China, with India importing about 70 per cent of oil, Mr Kumar said to tackle the backdrops of the country, ''the companies should come forward and invest in refineries.'' He further added that there is huge demand and supply gap, which needs to be curtailed. The other challenges the country is confronting are environmental problems, high service cost and lack of technical manpower to meet the energy demands.

UNI