The sale of 26 per cent stake by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in its KG Basin exploration block to a Japanese firm is awaiting the approval of the centre.
The Japanese oil and gas explorer Inpex Corporation has shown interest in buying the stake of the Indian company in the KG-DWN-2004/6 block.
An ONGC-led consortium secured the block under the NELP-VI licensing round and the block is located about 300 km off the Andhra Pradesh coast covering an area of 10,000 sq km, with a water depth of approximately 3,000 metre.
The state-owned explorer completed most of the phase-I exploration programme in the block except drilling of one well. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional seismic data have already been processed and exploratory well drilling is planned shortly in the block.
ONGC will continue as the operator of the deepwater block with a 34 per cent participating interest in consortium with existing partners GAIL (India) (10 per cent), Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (10 per cent), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (10 per cent) and Oil India (10 per cent).
The deal has been structured in such a way that Inpex will pay ONGC what it has spent on the block in the past proportionately and also meet future expenses according to its share.
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