Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Kazakhstan on Saturday with the two sides signing deals on uranium supplies and Indian involvement in developing a Caspian Sea oilfield.
Kazakhstan will now sell India more than 2,000 tons of uranium by 2014 under an agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
“India is going to a fivefold increase in electricity generation nuclear power plants and up until 2014 Kazakhstan will supply more than 2,000 tons of uranium,” Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said following the signing of the document.
Kazakhstan is one of the world’s top three producers of uranium, producing 17,800 tons last year.
The sides also signed an agreement on the transfer of a 25 percent stake in the Satpayev project on the Caspian Shelf to an Indian company, ONGC Videsh Ltd.
Initially, the Indian side will put $80m toward the project, with further payments to be made depending on the project needs, Oil and Gaz Minister Sauat Mynbayev said.
“The pluses for EP [national energy company Kazmunaigaz] lie in the fact that the entire program of exploration of the field will be funded by the Indian side, which gets 25 percent in the block,” he said.
“Whatever the investment program is, it is all to be financed by the Indian side,” Mynbayev added.
The Satpayev field is located in the northern part of the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, 90 kilometers from the coast.
ASTANA, April 16 (RIA Novosti)