VOA标准英语2010年-India Urges State-Owned Oil Companies

India is urging its oil companies to expand overseas to meet the soaring demands of its growing economy. India 's massive dependence¹ on imported oil has prompted the country to look for energy assets overseas.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a petroleum² conference Monday in New Delhi that over the coming decade, India 's demand for fossil fuels is set to increase massively. He said domestic production, though rising, will not keep pace with this demand.
"In India, the demand over the next 10 years will increase by about 40 percent, whereas the increase in supply from the maturing oil fields is expected to be about 12 percent," said Sing.
Mr. Singh told delegates that India 's state-owned oil companies will search for energy assets overseas. "Indian government is therefore encouraging all national oil companies to pursue equity³ oil and gas opportunities overseas. For these reasons we seek to build strong economic partnerships⁴ with other producing countries, and their oil and gas industries, to the mutual⁵ benefit of all us." The push to acquire overseas oil assets already has acquired momentum⁶ in a country that imports about 70 percent of its energy needs. This year, India 's oil minister, Murli Deora, traveled to several countries, including Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan, Angola and Venezuela, to lend diplomatic support to the search for oil and gas fields by state-owned companies.
India 's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is planning to borrow $10 billion over the next decade to buy overseas assets, according to media reports. The government also has increased to $1 billion the amount that state-owned companies can spend on acquisitions without government approval.
The hunt for sources of oil overseas has acquired a new urgency as India races to catch up with China, which has spent billions of dollars in acquiring oil assets in several countries. India 's oil companies have often lost out to China in the past while bidding for overseas assets. Energy experts say this is partly because China 's bids are backed by offers of aid, investment and loans to countries with oil assets.
As India, too, gives political backing to its bid to secure oil assets, Prime Minister Singh said hydrocarbons⁷ will continue to be India 's major source of energy for quite some time in the future.

1 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

2 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

3 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

4 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

5 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

6 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

7 hydrocarbons   

n.碳氢化合物，烃( hydrocarbon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hydrocarbons (HC), like carbon monoxide, represent unburned and wasted fuel. 碳氢化合物(HC)像一氧化碳一样，为未燃尽的和被浪费掉的燃料。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• With this restricted frequency range it is not applicable to hydrocarbons. 这个较紧缩的频率范围不适用于烃类。 来自辞典例句