'India, China should jointly bid for oil, gas fields'

China and India should jointly bid for contracts to acquire overseas oil and gas fields to reduce competition and strengthen cooperation in investments in energy technologies, Chinese media said today.

China and India "can jointly bid for contracts to acquire and develop overseas oil and gas resources," an article in the state-run Global Times said.

Compared with international oil giants, Chinese and Indian oil companies are still behind in terms of management, technology and capital strength, it said.

"Cooperation between Chinese and Indian firms would allow them to gain bargaining power in negotiations in the international oil and gas market," it said.

It also proposed that China and India could strengthen cooperation in investments in energy technology and products.

"China is ahead of India in energy technologies including coal-fired power generation technology, nuclear energy, wind and solar energy technology as well as equipment manufacturing. China also has huge funding resources," it said.

"In contrast, India has an edge in energy information management and wind energy, and also has a large energy market. In addition, Indian firms are more internationalised. Their complementarities offer great opportunities for the two countries to jointly invest in the energy sector," it said.

China's advanced solar energy technologies and the low cost of its solar energy equipment can help India has abundant solar energy resources.

It said the two countries can jointly invest in the solar photovoltaic industry through joint ventures and technology transfer to expand their solar energy market.

"The two countries can jointly develop and invest in power generation projects," it said.

China has expertise in the design and construction of large power stations, manufacturing of complete sets of hydropower equipment and coal-fired generation equipment as well as construction and management of power grids, whereas power supply and grid construction has always been the bottleneck in the development of India's power sector, it said.

It said another area for energy cooperation is pushing ahead with construction of oil and gas pipelines. Both China and India need reliable transmission pipelines as they import oil and gas from Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East.

"China has built a gas and oil pipeline network which connects with its neighbouring countries to the north and west. India is also working to build multiple energy pipeline routes but has experienced some difficulties due to the conflict between India and Pakistan," it said.

"India urgently needs China to join in its effort to build the pipeline network. Meanwhile, overland transportation routes that China expects to build to its west and southwest cannot bypass South Asian countries. India's prominent role in South Asia makes it even more necessary for China to cooperate with the country in building overland energy routes," it said.