ONGC to approach petroleum ministry for KG basin blocks
05 Mar 2007
New Delhi: ONGC has decided to approach the petroleum ministry to reconsider its decision to re-offer the three deepwater blocks held by the exploration major in future licensing rounds.
The ministry's viewpoint is that the exploratory licences have expired or are near expiry for these blocks.
Sources said the company wants to be allowed to pursue to the leads in these three blocks that were allotted to it on nomination basis and is looking at a 20-month extension to probe the leads in these blocks.
In other words, it wants to seek compensation for time lost because of a government decision to rope in private oil majors with technical expertise for the development of these blocks.
In April 2000, ONGC was given NELP terms to enable it to seek strategic alliances to explore and develop six deep-sea blocks, which includes three blocks in KG Basin - KG-OS-DW, KG-OS-DW-Extn and KG-OS-DW-III.
