PM Modi holds talks with oil sector CEOs at Houston

In his first engagement after arriving in Houston, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a fruitful round table interaction with 16 oil sector CEOs on Saturday, with the discussions focused on boosting cooperation in energy security.

Before the meeting, the Prime Minister first posed for photos with the oil sector CEOs. US ambassador in India Kenneth Juster was also present

"Further energising India-USA friendship. Among the first engagements of PM @narendramodi in Houston is a meeting with CEOs from the energy sector. India and USA are looking to diversify cooperation in this sector," PMO tweeted.

CEOs of 16 leading American companies attended the roundtable, including Baker Hughes, BP, Cheniere Energy, Dominion Energy, Emerson Electric Company, ExxonMobil, Perot Group and Hillwood, IHS Markit, LyondellBasell Industries, McDermott, Schlumberger, Tellurian, Total, Air Products, Vinmar International and Westlake Chemicals.

On the sidelines, India's Petronet LNG inked a MoU with US liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer Tellurian Inc for up to five million tonnes of LNG through equity investment in Driftwood Holdings, a subsidiary located in Louisiana.

Later, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted that PM Modi had a "fruitful interaction" with the top energy sector CEOs at a roundtable meeting in Houston. "Discussions focused on working together for energy security and expanding mutual investment opportunities between India and the US," he said.

Houston is known as the US' oil and gas capital. India and the US had last year inked the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership to enhance collaboration in energy cooperation.

The US began selling crude oil to India in 2017, and is becoming a major source. Supplies from the US jumped more than four-fold to 6.4 million tonnes in the 2018-19 fiscal year. In 2017-18, the first year of imports from the US, the supplies were at 1.4 million tonnes.

India purchased about 1,84,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil from the US from November 2018 to May 2019.

( With inputs from IANS )