ONGCSaudi Aramco ONGCSaudi Aramco

India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC) and Saudi Aramco on November 18 inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore a strategic alliance on a broad range of energy prospects.

Under this MoU, ONGC and Saudi Aramco will look into long-term supply contracts for the sale and purchase of crude, refined petroleum, and petrochemical products to create secure and competitive energy sources for the Indian market.

Both parties hope to utilize their affiliates in this strategic alliance, namely: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL), ONGC Petro Addition Ltd. (OPaL), and Mangalore Petrochemicals Ltd. (MPL) for ONGC and Aramco Trading Company (ATC) for Saudi Aramco.

Both parties also look forward to exploring low carbon energy demand and supply as part of this strategic alliance.

The MoU was signed by Subhash Kumar, ONGC’s Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), and Mohammed Yahya Al Qahtani, Saudi Aramco’s Head of Downstream. The signing ceremony took place at the Saudi Arabia Pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020.

Subhash Kumar, ONGC CMD, said: “This MoU further strengthens our bilateral energy relationship, which is one of the cornerstones of the solid historical ties between India and Saudi Arabia. This collaboration will bolster both companies’ capabilities, leveraging our respective in-house competencies while creating value for all stakeholders and offering a framework for expanding the cooperation in other energy-related areas.”

Mohammed Yahya Al Qahtani, Saudi Aramco, Sr. Vice President of Downstream, said: “This ceremony is a testament to the strong and valuable relations between our economies, our countries, and our people. India is a strategic and significant market of the Kingdom, and we look forward to enhancing our synergies by providing mutually-beneficial opportunities through our global-scale trading network and system with a competitive offering. We hope that this will open more areas of collaboration in the future to expand our global footprint.”

ONGC and its affiliates have a significant presence in exploration and production, domestic refining, petrochemicals, power, and renewables in India. The ONGC group has a diversified line of business such as pipelines, LNG re-gasification terminals, and several subsidiaries and joint ventures on energy-related businesses.

Saudi Aramco is a leading integrated energy and chemicals company engaged in oil exploration, production, transportation, refining, logistics, power generation, and marketing of crude oil, petroleum, and petrochemical products, with a strong network of affiliates and joint ventures.