Before the meeting, the Prime Minister first posed for photos with the oil sector CEOs. US ambassador to India Kenneth Juster was also present
"Further energising India-USA friendship. Among the first engagements of PM @narendramodi in Houston is a meeting with CEOs from the energy sector. India and USA are looking to diversify cooperation in this sector," the PMO tweeted.
CEOs of 16 leading American companies are said to be attending the roundtable with the PM, including Baker Hughes, BP, Cheniere Energy, Dominion Energy, Emerson Electric Company, ExxonMobil, Perot Group and Hillwood, IHS Markit, LyondellBasell Industries, McDermott, Schlumberger, Tellurian, Total, Air Products, Vinmar International and Westlake Chemicals.
Houston is known as the US' oil and gas capital. India and the US had last year inked the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership to enhance collaboration in energy cooperation.
The US began selling crude oil to India in 2017, and is becoming a major source. Supplies from the US jumped more than four-fold to 6.4 million tonnes in the 2018-19 fiscal year. In 2017-18, the first year of imports from the US, the supplies were at 1.4 million tonnes.
India purchased about 1,84,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil from the US from November 2018 to May 2019.
Indian Ambassador Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said earlier: "Our cooperation with the US in the energy sector has increased significantly because of interest in the US' shale oil and LNG sector. We are also looking for technologies for the Indian energy companies. The PM would be meeting some of the top companies in the energy sector, and most are headquartered in Houston."
( With inputs from IANS )