Madrid: India could invest up to 10 billion dollars (6.34 billion euros) in Canada's tar sands oil industry, the head of the country's state oil company said Thursday.

Canada has vast reserves of tar sands -- a dense mixture of sand, water and petoleum used to extract bitumen -- but the development of the indusry is controverial because of its environental impact.

"We have looked into those (tar sands) opportunities in Canada and done our due diligence," R S Sharma, the Chairman and Managing Director of India s Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), told AFP in an interview.

"In times to come, when we know that a resource base for oil and gas is drying up everywhere and the prices are going up so high, this production from tar sands is a good commercial proposition."

Asked about reports that India was considering investments of 2.0 to 2.5 billion dollars, he replied:"I would say why 2.0 to 2.5? ... Our actual investment could be much larger than that.

"We have a strong financial resource base, so 2.5 billion is not the end. We can go up to 8.0 or 10 billion dollars."

He conceded that environmental concerns of extracting tar sands "are huge."

Source : PTI