Reliance Industries (RIL) has been approached by Chinese and European oil majors for hiring one of its drilling rigs, which had also been sought by state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
ONGC had been talking to Reliance for past few months to hire DD-KG-1 ultra deep-sea drillship for four years at $5,10,000 per day, the same rate at which RIL had taken the rigs from Transocean Inc of on five-year lease.
Though ONGC has been desperately seeking a rig to probe oil and gas leads like the ultra deepsea UD-1 discovery for past two years, the board of the company last week deferred a decision to hire the rig from RIL on assignment basis, sources said.
On prodding from the government and the oil regulator DGH for participating in the 'rig sharing' programme where operators share resources for optimal utilisation, RIL had agreed to give the DD-KG-1 rig to ONGC.
But meanwhile, CNOOC of China and ENI of Italy too approached RIL offering between $5,60,000 and $5,70,000 per day for the same rig.
"They (Reliance) have given us in writing that they have offers much higher than our offer price," an ONGC executive said. "The transaction on merit is very good but timing (because of ongoing elections) is bad. We have sought more time from RIL to decide."