India’s growing thirst for oil has prompted the country to seek investments worth $1-billion in oil development and mining projects in Africa’s Ivory Coast.

The fast growing Asian economy plans to invest in Africa’s natural oil wealth in the Gulf of Guinea which has some of the continent’s richest petroleum reserves. India is eager to open new factories in the Ivory Coast which produces more than 60,000 barrels of oil per day.

India and China - because of their population demands, economic growth and increasing prosperity - need energy security, plus they have money to invest now, said Amarenda Khatua, India's ambassador to Ivory Coast, according to the BBC.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the economy of India is the fourth largest in the world measured by purchasing power parity, with a GDP of $3.6-trillion. India has identified this market and it believes this crisis will be resolved soon and that it will then be able to penetrate deeper into the market, said Mr Khatua.

India China