ONGC looks for foreign partnership in oil hunt
December 2011

The state-run ONGC is exploring the possibilities of a tie-up with glo­bal companies to boost its domestic deep-water hydrocarbons hunt. On offer are 19 oil and gas acreages, including the east coast ultra-deepwater gas di­s­covery of the company, won thro­ugh domestic licensing rounds.


ONGC is negotiating with 13 international companies, mainly from the US and Australia, for a proposed partnership. Of the 19 blocks on offer for participating interest, three are already discovered. The blo­cks are spread across the Krishna-Godavari Basin, the Cauvery-Palar Basin, the Mahanadi Basin, and the Andamans.

Recently, ONGC has been in discussions with ENI, the Italian exploration major, for a possible tie-up in the integrated appraisal, development process of New Exploration and Licensing Policy block KG-DWN-98/2 (excluding the big gas discovery in ultra-deepwater in same the block) and adjoining nomination blocks.