It is a great honour for me to sign the minutes from the 3rd Joint working group meeting together with the Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas His Excellency Murli Deora.

Signing this document means much more than just signing the minutes from a meeting with Indian and Norwegian participants. What it really means, is to sign a document that clearly indicates that the cooperation between our two countries in the oil and gas sector has been brought further forward, and that it has a large potential.

According to IEA the demand for energy will increase by more than 50% from 2005 to 2030. Fossil fuels will meet more than 80% of the projected increase in primary energy demand. In the global energy market India and Norway has a role to play. Norway is already the worlds 3rd largest exporter of oil and gas, and Norwegian oil companies and supply industry have obtained unique expertise after nearly 40 years with oil and gas activities at the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

India is an important actor in the global energy market, and India’s importance will even be higher in the following years and decades due its increased needs for fossil fuels. Hopefully, a big share of this need can be met by extracting the oil and gas resources located in Indian waters.

By cooperating, our two countries can efficiently find and utilize these resources. And after this meeting we are closer to start this cooperation, not only on paper but in action.

In this 3rd joint working group meeting several important topics have been discussed and many valuable presentations have been given. What all the topics and all the presentations had in common were that to pave the way for increased cooperation in the oil and gas business between our two countries. There is no doubt that there has been a great progress towards Indian/Norwegian cooperation since the first meeting in the working group in New Delhi in 2004. The second meeting in the working group was held in Oslo in May 2005. MoU’s on various oil and gas related areas were, as a result of this meeting, some months later signed between various Indian and Norwegian companies and institutions. I hope that today’s meeting will be followed by further contacts between Norwegian and Indian oil companies, service and supply industry and in the field of research and development. And I sincerely hope that this contact in the end will be materialized in concrete business cooperation.

Even though our programme in India will continue for another day, I will also use this opportunity to thank our Indian hosts for an interesting, instructive and informative stay in India. I think I can say on behalf of all the Norwegians that we are impressed by all we have learned about the Indian offshore activities and the oil companies, the supply industry and research institutions taking part in this activity. I am not only referring to what I learned from the seminar in Mumbai. I am also referring to my visit to Reliance industries and the meeting with representatives from the Indo-Norwegian Maritime Technology forum.

Finally I will just repeat that I hope that this 3rd meeting in the joint working group will contribute to business opportunities between Norwegian and Indian companies in a not to distant future. After lunch I will meet my Indian colleague His Excellency Murli Deora and discuss further how we from the governmental side can contribute and facilitate cooperation between our two countries in the oil and gas activity.

Thank you for your attention.