In what will open a new market for Indian refiners including Reliance Industries Ltd and Essar Oil, the government is considering a proposal to export petrol and other petroleum products to Pakistan, petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy said on Wednesday.
In addition, India and Pakistan
are close to agreeing on a transit fee and a joint strategy to develop gas fields and import gas through pipeline from the Central Asian Republic of Turkmenistan, holding the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas after Russia, Iran and Qatar.
"The details of the proposal to export petroleum products to Pakistan would be finalised in a few weeks," Reddy said after his meeting with Pakistan's energy minister Asim Hussain.
Imports of petrol from India are currently banned by Pakistan. While Pakistan allowed diesel imports from India in 2009, but no Indian supplies were sent in the face of preferential prices offered by Pakistan's allies such as Kuwait.
India and Pakistan are both keen to tap gas from Turkmenistan through a pipeline via the Central Asian country's eastern neighbour, Afghanistan. China has already tapped into Turkmenistan's gas reserves with a 1,800-km pipeline that was laid in late-2009 that runs through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to reach its western region, and connecting further via a domestic channel to reach Shanghai in the east.