By Mure Dickie in Beijing and Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo Published: June 19 2008 03:00 | Last updated: June 19 2008 03:00 Beijing and Tokyo are to work together to exploit gas reserves in disputed waters of the East China Sea, under a long-awaited deal demonstrating the determination of east Asia's biggest powers to bridge their differences.

The block has one billion barrels of oil also National Iranian Oil will market the product After the successful discovery of crude oil in three wells of Farsi block in Iran, a consortium led by ONGC Videsh (OVL) and comprising Indian Oil Corporation and Oil India Limited (OIL) have submitted a proposal to invest about $3 billion to bring into production 12.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas reserves.

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries is now on the verge of a quantum leap in one of its several growth platforms, energy, Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said here on Thursday.

The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday allowed Indian companies to invest in overseas energy and natural resources sectors such as oil, gas, coal and mineral ores in excess of the current limits with prior approval of the central bank.

The government can partly keep crude import bill and prices under control by supporting oil companies in acquiring rigs for exploration of domestic hydrocarbon sources, according to industry body Assocham said. Currently, 70 per cent of India's petroleum, oil and lubricant requirements are met through imports which might go up to 90 per cent by 2010, Assocham said in its paper on 'Indian Oil & Gas Sector: An Overview.'

Rising oil prices is forcing Gulf states to invest in gas production. Some analysts estimate that the cumulative supply shortfall for the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council up to 2015 will reach at least 7,000bn cubic feet. To put the number into perspective, according to BP the UK's entire remaining proven gas reserves total just under 17,000bn cu ft. "There is a Middle East regional gas crisis brewing," says Rajnish Goswami at Wood Mackenzie, the Edinburgh-based energy consultancy.

In a major breakthrough for the state-run Oil India Limited (OIL) in securing oil and gas assets abroad, the company and its partners have entered into an agreement with National Oil Corporation of Libya for four exploration blocks in that country that are estimated to hold two trillion cubic metres (tcm) of gas reserves. According to an official spokesman here, a consortia of OIL, Algeria's Sonatrach and Indian Oil Corporation, signed exploration and production sharing agreement with the National Oil Corporation of Libya.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has announced to go for large-scale exploration work in Tripura with the increasing investment scope in the power sector and medium-scale industries in the State. ONGC officials said here today that the exploration would commence at Tulamura under Belonia subdivision from the first week of June since the requirement of natural gas had increased because of the upcoming thermal plants at Palatana in South Tripura and Monarchak in West Tripura and expansion of existing plants in Barmura and Rokhia.

The Ukrainian prime minister cast a shadow over a strategically important hydrocarbon exploration project yesterday, openly accusing a US energy company leading the venture of holding backroom talks with Russia's Gazprom. Announcing her government had repealed an exploration licence off Ukraine's Black Sea coast for Houston-based Vanco Energy, Yulia Tymoshenko also raised the stakes in a long-standing rivalry with Viktor Yushchenko, the president.

Public sector ONGC on Saturday said it has achieved highest reserve accretion of the decade and would invest Rs 3,570.6 crore for maintaining, revamping and enhancing its oil and gas production from existing fields.