Singapore keen to work with Indian firms

Singapore, sep 13: Singapore's Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Saturday, Sep 13 hightlighted the potential for Singapore companies to work with their Indian counterparts, as India intensifies the development of oil and gas resources.

Speaking at the naming ceremony of a petroleum mining rig here , Mr Shanmugaratnam saw the 'win-win' collaboration between rig builder Keppel feel and Indian rig operator Jindal Drilling and Industries. Keppel has today built and delivered a 190 million dollars jack-up rig, Discovery-1, to Jindal which will be deploying it on the West Coast of India for drilling oil and gas wells for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation from October.

Over the last five years, Indian offshore and marine companies have ordered a total of nine jackup drilling rigs amounting to about 1.5 billion dollars in rig building orders for Keppel, a Singapore-based international offshore oil and gas company.

Jindal Managing Director Naresh Kumar said Discovery-1 will be drilling for ONGC for three years while a second 190 million dollars jack-up, Virtue-1 to be completed mid-November by Keppel, has a five-year contract with ONGC for drilling on the West Coast of India.

UNI