Canada touts gas potential to India

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said his country is a natural partner in the energy sector to a growing market in India. Oliver spoke to delegates at an international oil and natural gas conference in India, promoting Canada's role as a responsible supplier of liquefied natural gas. "With our abundance of natural resources, Canada is well positioned to play a leading role in supplying the energy required to meet India's growing demand," he said in a statement Monday. Canada is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the world, with a reserve base that could last at least 200 years at current production rates. India, meanwhile, is the world's fourth largest energy consumer and its energy demand is expected to quadruple within the next 25 years. India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. said it expects to produce as much as 353 million cubic feet of natural gas from India's offshore reserves by 2018. Last week, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India called for more support for a subsea pipeline being planned by South Asia Gas Enterprises. SAGE says its deep water gas pipeline from the Persian Gulf region could supply India with as much as 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the next 20 years.